Well, let’s take this report with a grain of salt for the time being, although it’s been reported by several venues. I learned about it when a reader sent this tw**t from philosopher/writer/friend Russell Blackford:
Okay, if that indeed true, it’s one of the worst examples of Coddling Our Students I’ve seen. The photo and Russell’s link goes to a piece by Johnny McNulty on SomeLife, who in turn apparently got it (and the photos) from a post originally put on reddit:
Here’s the offensive lunchbox (click on photo to go to the original page):
So a girl (neither her and the school are identified) went to school with that lunchbox, and reportedly came home with this letter (note: the fact that both parents are addressed by first name raises a bit of doubt in my mind):
Yes, that’s certainly a violent lunchbox—NOT!
The Mary Sue explains why the school is dead wrong about Wonder Woman:
But this lunchbox has a picture of Wonder Woman’s face on one side, and on the other a full-body picture of her flying while extolling her beauty and wisdom. Two very non-violent qualities. What’s more, she’s holding her Lasso of Truth, which she never uses as a weapon.
However, even more nonsensical is their blanket ban on “violent characters” who “solve problems using violence,” when anyone who’s ever actually picked up a comic book knows that most superheroes 1) turn to violence as a last resort, and usually in self-defense, or when the lives of others are in danger, 2) don’t want to kill anyone, and 3) often have other skills that make them so “super” and are worth looking up to (Batman’s power of deduction, Superman’s belief in humanity, Wonder Woman’s love of peace).
It’s sad to me that, whenever children are concerned, rather than actually engaging with the material – or with the children themselves – when determining what’s best for them or not, adults in positions of power too often take the easy way out, creating blanket bans rather than respecting children enough to deal in ideas and provide them with context.
I guess Superman and Batman are out, too. Stay tuned for the continuing story of the bowdlerization of American schools, and the dumbing down of both students and faculty.
Seems as if tiny little Antman has arrived on the superhero scene just in the nick of time.
This seems too bizarre to be true, but of course bizarre is the new normal, so who knows?
Still, wouldn’t the school have to ban George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Barak Obama, and any other U.S. President who ever participated in a war (which is almost all of them)?
We are the new Victorians.
After decades of laughting at Victorian prudishness, our world has passed them by.
I wonder what future generations will think of this time period.
Exactly. We have seen a return of “the vapors.”
(Except the Victorians were not really as bad as they are portrayed to be of course. A good book is Inventing The Victorians.)
Imagine what would happen if you sent the kid with a picture of Trump on the lunch box. I think 5 years hard time would be the minimum. However, in some states the kid might just get advanced two grades.
No wonder American education is doing so well. Really working on the important stuff.
I might have expected it to be criticised for sterotyping women in terms of costume, or some sexist charge, but violence?
For me the first thing (and I know I am dating myself) that comes to mind is that classics ditty of a theme song from the 70’s t.v. show. I am sure they are trying to prevent that ear-worm, as who could focus on academics with “da da da-da-da” playing havoc in ones thoughts?
I picked up a Betty Page lunchbox in a second hand store. Wonder if that would cause a reaction.
There are plenty of pictures of Betty page tying people up.
I have two Bettie Page lunchboxes. I got them online from Things From Another World, which sells all kinds of comics-related stuff. They’re at http://www.tfaw.com, and I am only a customer.
What about the Allies using violence to solve problems like… the Nazis? Does this mean my Dwight Eisenhower lunchbox is out?
The police are out, the FBI, certainly the defense on any football team, all parts of the military, half of the parents. Better just put your lunch in a brown paper bag. And maybe go outside to eat it.
Paper bags are not allowed as they might contain liquor bottles. (snark)
I never understood this thing about lunchboxes. Don’t American schools provide a nutritious cooked lunch for their pupils?
No, they don’t. Schools will provide food for purchase and there are programs to help kids who are unable to pay, so students who need it can get lunch at no charge, but most bring their lunch or buy it.
I’m skeptical that it is true.
I wouldn’t care to bet on whether or not this particular incident really happened, but there is nothing about it (at least what is given in the OP) that seems the least bit implausible to me. Not even the use of names in the letter. Not given my experiences with my childrens’ schools over the past 6 years.
Skeptical seems like the right reaction.
An anonymous post to Reddit says: “A letter a friend of mine’s daughter received from her school today”.
So, it’s anonymous source on Reddit with a story about the daughter of a friend.
There are countless unsourced memes on the Internet with prey on humanity’s tendency toward confirmation bias. Many of them confirm my biases. Those are harder to detect than those obviously false ones that violate my biases. 😉
Amen! 🙂
So roughly the same evidence we have for Christ’s Resurrection; i.e.: zero.
A man I met in a pub says it’s probably a hoax. 😉
I’m very skeptical about this one too. It just doesn’t ring true to me.
Who decides what a “violent character” is? Is Frodo a violent character? Tarzan? Snoopy as a WWI flying ace?
Go the whole hog and have the Mahatma violently weaving homespun and picking salt off the shore. That stuff can bring down empires.
No pictures of the police or the armed forces, then. No pictures of Washington or Lincoln, either. Zero tolerance has run amok when resisting violence is equated with initiating violence.
Besides, violence by bad actors must usually be met with violence or at least the threat of violence.
North American comics are known for their violence – and odd identification of “comics = superheroes”, speaking of dumbing down the world – relative to all other continents, even if “bowdlerized” as you say. Dagwood is a famous example of both open violence and its unrealistic depiction. [Sorry, I haven’t kept the refs.]
Yes, US comics may often push for non-violence but only as a gimmick to safely present violence. Maybe that is useful in a violent society, but I wish for its demonstration in that case. It is notable that satire like Lobo, based on the violence and popularity of Wolverine (a favorite of my own), can become popular and bowdlerized from disembowelment and dismemberment to a regular in the DC world.
This is one reason that a political candidate who attacks “political correctness” is going to get positive attention.
This is why I am against ANY laws, rules or regulations for ANY reason, good or bad, ever again. We’re over-thinking and trying to micro-manage every passing human thought to the point that it’s ridiculous, unenforceable and just psychotic. Next, we might as well ban Greek mythology. To believe that every image and external tug of gravitational pull will turn us into raving homicidal maniacs is a total misunderstanding of biological human nature. This type of thinking is as bad as denying evolution.
So, you think that smoking in a flammable atmosphere (say, 10% v/v methane in air) should be permissible? Or, in an alternative case, putting 3ppm of hydrogen sulphide on the streets of a major city for a week is an acceptable method of well control?
It’s very silly. But I’m with GB, I’m pretty skeptical that this is the complete, unbiased story.
I agreed with GB above. Just reading some more of the comments, it struck me that if you’re going to ban characters who use violence to solve problems, that’s the end of God in schools! Perhaps there’s an upside here after all!
They tried to ban violent toys at my elementary school way back when, including toy guns. The latter I can sort of understand, but a corner case arose during my time there. For those in the know, one word: (generation 1) Megatron. Rules are hard to do right! 🙂
I had Galvatron, who, similarly, turned into a gun – except it was a crappy purple ray-gun rather than the cool, grey handgun that Megatron turned into. I think, at that age, if I’d had a real gun I’d have used it to hold up the nearest toyshop for Transformer figurines, Megatron in particular.
As a side-note it’s strange that I spent so much of my youth daydreaming about owning the Hot Rod(?) character in his upgraded version, since he transformed, for some bizarre reason, into a winnebago. A winnebago?! They could’ve sold me almost anything with the Transformers logo on – Farm-yard animal-o-bots, Food-o-bots(Eggatron, Choptimus Prime, Baconus), Shrub-o-bots…I think if they’d stuck Hydrangeatron in the cartoon show and given him/her a backstory I’d genuinely have been sold on the idea of a robot that turns into a bush(perhaps for stealth reasons).
The amazing thing was there was apparently serious debate about allowing kids to bring Megatron to school but *not* allow him to be transformed while there!
As for the obsession, I was never seriously into it, but a bunch of us nevertheless did some drawings of some new ideas and sent them to the company and got very nice letters (complete with Transformers letterhead!) back explaining that they appreciate the input but cannot make use of them for the usual legal reasons (that I now know about from other contexts).
“The Mary Sue” doesn’t know much about Wonder Woman.
While the character started off fairly peaceful as superheroes go, she’s gotten much more violent over time. In one famous issue, she snapped a man’s neck that she already had under her control. She now carries a sword.
That’s not a “Lasso Of Truth”; it’s bondage gear. One wonders what she and Spider-Man would do on a date. Maybe this:
Not bad!
Yes, but DC and Marvel don’t mix 😉
This kind of thing has been going on for a long time. In the late 1960s, cartoons were censored for “violent content”. Bugs Bunny hands Elmer Fudd a stick of dynamite. No explosion – it was cut – but in the next frame, Elmer is standing there all charred and disheveled. In the 1990s, the Harry Potter books were “teaching children witchcraft”. Now it’s crap like this.
All of this tells me that it’s not children who have problems distinguishing between fantasy and reality; it’s adults.
Agree- adults have the problem in these kind of cases. I used to play Dungeons and Dragons as a kid and one of my grandmothers told me it was demonic and she equated playing the game with worshiping satan. Christians are such fearful and poor thinking humans.
Add to that that many adults can sometimes be jealous of children being able to be, well, children.
But yeah, Christianity is definitely all about fear.
I’ve wondered for *years* how that “meme” got started. Gygax himself was a Christian, after all. (There’s the “tiny difference effect”, though.)
Perhaps the real reason for banning this is the reference to Greek goddesses. They don’t like goddesses muddling the minds of good christians who very well know g*d is a very wise and loving bearded MAN.
Just what I was thinking! Also, though WW was not very prominent here, I believe she is not very subject to her husband. Colossians 3:18.
I remember I used to have a metal Flash Gordon lunchbox back in the mid-’60s which included an image of Flash using his ray gun to zap and disintegrate the mid-section of an alien reel guud.
How about banning it because it perpetuates unrealistic images of the human form, thus lowering the self-esteem of the average child? It also objectifies woman.
I don’t agree with these policies either in this case, but at least it would be more believable.
As a parent of three grade-school-age girls, I would would be fine if branded clothing and accessories at school were banned entirely.
Our school has uniforms, and also restrictions on “distracting” hair styles and some other rules along those lines. Coats and jackets do not have to be in the uniform colors/tartan, and the images and messages on those are restricted, though I am pretty sure superheroes are allowed because I see lots of them at school.
But really, the intrusion of corporate brands in the public schools has long been a pet peeve of mine – I thought to start a “Keep your Brands Off Our Kids” movement, but in truth I have no idea how to start a movement, and I may be alone with this particular hangup.
With the reduction in funding at our schools, corporations have helpfully stepped in with donations of supplies and learning materials which constitute advertising: I’ve seen math worksheets bearing the M&M candy characters and logo, merit awards bearing pizza parlor chain logos and a tear-off coupon a free slice and drink, and one of the “feminine protection” makers distributed videos to educate youngsters about menstruation with heavy placement of the maker’s products throughout.
So I find it quite insidious, at the elementary school level especially, the way brands manipulate tastes and status perception and let’s face it gender roles: I would rather my daughters carry a lunch box of Wonder Woman, Batgirl, or Ms Marvel over some princess – but a) we don’t let them see those comics or cartoons and would not until they are in 8th or 9th grade, because of the violence and lewd dress; and b) as noted, we don’t let them wear the branded crap to school in the first place.
And having said that: ban it all, or draw the line this side of banal superhero images and logos. I agree with many of the commenters above: too complicated, more trouble than it’s worth, and what’s next? Today it’s superheroes, tomorrow it’s football teams? hockey teams? auto racing (vehicles pollute)? dinosaurs (violent, “controversial” origin)?
I agree. Ban it all. I think it’s insidious and evil to aim the power of marketing at children. Children are putty in their hands.
And I don’t understand all the outrage, even if the story is true. This is a dress code, which I believe most everyone agrees should exist in some form. So they want to draw a line at potential or perceived violence. Big deal. No one is saying they can’t play superhero outside of school.
That said, it’s fine if someone wants to lobby the virtues of superheroes to the dress code decision makers. But how much of the school’s limited resources should be spent arguing over a lunch box?
Thee outrage can be strong here and may be the bigger and growing bigger problem, over any particular specific instance or issue.
Keeping away from licensed (branded) products is difficult. Back in 1984, a friend and his wife had their first kid, and he swore that there would be no licensed products in the home. As they stated preparing for the birth, he said that he had to renege on that vow, because unlicensed kids’ products were almost impossible to find. He couldn’t even find crib bedding without cartoon characters on them. He finally settled for products he deemed less obnoxious, like Care Bears™.
In the thirty years since then, not much has changed in the world of licensed products.
I don’t think whether this is true or not is the issue. The fact that it’s not so absurd that it couldn’t be, is.
If this lunchbox is still sold commercially I want to get it for my niece.
The good news is that images of God would also be banned under the same nonviolent dress code.
Growing up in the Chicago area, I had a Lone Ranger lunch box, and then a Zorro lunch box. And Zorro sword, and a Mattel “Fanner 50” six-gun. Nobody got hurt, but I almost poked my best friend’s eye out with the Zorro sword.
What next? Banning “coon-skin” caps because Davey Crockett killed him a “baar” when he was only three?
Oops, I forgot, it’s 2015…
I guess YHWH is right out!
sub
If these administrators saw any of the cartoons I grew up on, they’d probably have a stroke!
That’s idiotic. Wonder Woman was (I think) well-known for always solving things without violence, as I understand it (I never watched). You can almost see their tiny minds working – “Wonder Woman is a superhero. Superheroes zap things. Therefore Wonder Woman is violent”.
A local channel here is replaying all the old series that are better forgotten, including WW, I caught half an episode recently (Mrs inf.’s tastes are indiscriminate and eclectic) and couldn’t help laughing at (a) how pathetic the ‘special effects’ and chase scenes were and (b) how unstressed, not a hair out of place, and un-threatening WW was.
Now if it had been Xena or the Bride on the lunchbox, the school might have had a point (but they’d still be misguided).
cr
We’re I a betting man, I’d put very low odds on this being true:http://m.snopes.com/wonder-woman-lunchbox/
On top of the points Snoped makes, superheroes have enjoyed a dramatic resurgence in recent years. My 3rd grade son wears t-shirts almost exclusively featured comics and sci-fi movie themes. Nary a word has ever been said. Given the popularity of such paraphernalia, it is extremely likely that if this girl’s school had such a policy it would be corroborated by numerous people. The “Daniel and Sarah” greeting rings untrue as well. In my experience, teachers ask for an email address at most and also send out notices like these (that would surely have a template) are generally addressed to the parents if it is a common issue. I can’t see a teacher personalizing such a note about policy. Moreover, there’s not a shred of evidence to prove this is real on top of all the reasons to doubt it.
Don’t forget the Salvation Army tossing Harry Potter toys. I thought PCC posted on that a long while back but couldn’t find it. But here it is on Patheos.
Also, if the letter is real, whoever wrote it is a real lunchbox.
Now this is a side issue but what do you ladies out there think? Does Wonder Woman need straps? When she beats up the bad guys (they’re always males), isn’t there a possibility of an, ahem, accident? This could be quite embarrassing.
A few years back, the woman who wrote the comic strip dialogues tried to get the executives to mandate straps for WW’s costume but, being men (we males all think alike) they wouldn’t hear of it. What do you ladies say about this (or any other WW issues)?
Some would say that’s precisely the point. The “Theiss Titilation Factor” is about that. (Theiss was the costumer on the original Star Trek and supposedly said something like that the sexiness of a piece of clothing is proportional to the *perceived* likelihood of something embarassing being exposed by a mishap. Of course, he apparently glued the actresses into their costumes!)
Does that decision mean no police officers allowed on lunch boxes, no american soldiers, no Abe Lincoln because he started tie Civil War and that was pretty violent, no Heros or Good Guys at all because Good Guys fight the bad guys and that’s soooo violent too, or is it only Superpeople who are baned??
Sounds sort of stupid and short-sighted to me.
I was brought up to think the Good Guys were hero’s, but I guess the Good Guys are now considered bad guys in America and we sure don’t want kids to admire them.
Abe Lincoln didn’t start the Civil War.
Betcha they still won’t let anyone carrying a lunchbox with Honest Abe’s picture on it into that school.
And I still think he had his finger in the middle of the Civil War pie. I haven’t heard anything about General Lee or President Davis wanting to cuddle up with him and get all chummy.
Love you Bro, in spite of you being all twitchy and such like.
P.S. The attack on Fort Sumpter started the war, but President Abe finished it. You can bet your tooter on that.
Starting and finishing remain distinct. Especially regarding warfare, bro.
It’s “Sumter”.
What about a Dinosaur Lunchbox with say a Cartoon Trex on the lid ? I cant think of anything as potentially violent as a TRex , perhaps a pack of Raptors ? ,what with 1st Year Students balking at a Graphic Novel covering LGBT issue, Common Sense is dead and buried and the Lunatics have pretty much taken over the Asylum.
You sure said a mouthful there my boy. If Trump the Chump and the GOP take over it really will be Asylum-USA. (Same goes for the rest of the republican {wanna be president} clowns) [Hero lunchboxes will be a thing of the past—only the Chumps picture will be allowed on them]
Damn! I’ve actually GOT a Wonder Woman lunchbox which some friends gave me a few years ago…