Critical Response

In Gerard Jones's essay, Violent Media is Good for Kids, he makes a claim that justifies the benefits of violent media in children's lives. Jones clearly agrees that violent media (movies, comic books, etc.) is helpful to children. He claims that these stories help children cope with their early stages of life.

In the second paragraph, Jones states that comics " were good for me because they were juvenile. And violent." He, later on, goes to state that the Marvel character the incredible hulk helped him because  "suddenly I had a fantasy self to carry my stifled rage and buried desire for power." He goes on to say that this fantasy him helped carry him to other "senstive geeks chasing their own inner brutes." The language he used calling others brutes and explaining how this fantasy character him helped him carry his stifled rage and desire for power, does nothing but contradict his very own argument. There is nothing good about a young man with a desire for power and stifled rage, it sounds like violence brewing within him that is waiting to be unleashed. All this concealed anger, geeky brutes, and desire for power sounds just like the Hulk himself. 

"Across generations, genders, and ethnicities I kept seeing the same story: people pulling themselves out of emotional traps by immersing themselves in violent stories." This is a quote directly pulled from Jones' essay, stating that comics have helped people pull themselves out of emotional traps by immersing themselves in violence. Jones's play on words really hurts his argument, there is nothing fitting or even soothing about knowing that people run away from emotional traps by being immersed in pure violence. Sounds like a tragedy waiting to happen, as they have been in recent years. Not only does his play on words affect his argument but the pure fact that all he has are stories. Stories of random people not mentioned or even quoted, stories of himself and his son, nothing is concrete it's just a bunch of stories. 

There seems to be a pattern, whether it be the story of how the Hulk helped him stifle his inner rage and need for power, or how the hulk helped him find the geeky brutes with anger issues as well, they are all just stories. Stories of countless people from all around the world of all ages and backgrounds, saying how they immerse themselves in this violent media just to get away from their problems. Or how his son finally found the courage to climb that tree, or even how he himself found the courage to lock away his rage, Jones loves himself a story. Stories don't make arguments, facts do, and he has but one fact. On the other hand, all we see on media is people acting upon their rage and need for power due to their exposure to violent media. Violent media is not good for kids, and Jones does nothing to prove otherwise, but tell stories.