May 30
“Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games, cartoons and movies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor.”
Oh boy. Thanks to Brian for the linkage.
*groans*
Yeah I was at one of these things once. Mostly geeks who barely know how to throw a punch. they had training excersises and then balanced out the fighters pretty evenly. You don’t want to go against someone much weaker than you and you don’t want to die so you tend to be quite honest with your own ability.
My hands were swollen for a week or two and I could barely move, but my confidence was through the roof. Unfortunatly there’s the guilt that goes along with it. I don’t like to hurt people so I never went back.
You have to admit that if you have a desk job, life becomes empty. You get a lot of stress in that situation and need to find a way to let it out. I used to let it out by driving but I don’t want to kill anyone. I started lifting weights and that worked for the most part but when I stopped I went to flab, now I have to lift weights for the rest of my life or I’ll get breasts or something.
Video games is a great release, as long as it’s not one of those stress inducing games.
If I had the choice of beating someone sensless or playing a video game, I think I would choose the game. However if someone breaks into my house, he probably won’t be walking out of it.
Stupid things guys do to prove they are men.
Regarding the quote provided:
How could somebody with so little knowledge of human nature become a professor of sociology? All these people blame the media: games, movies, etc for anything violent.
Human males are programmed on some basic level to need to fight, we fight to protect our land, our mates, and our offspring – modern culture doesn’t allow for that, so we need other releases – violent video games, movies and books aren’t the CAUSE of our violent nature, they’re a release. Failing to find that release leads to things like Fight Clubs, which are admittedly a more efficient outlet, though perhaps a tad less civilised.
*winces and agrees that the ‘sociology professor’ is insane*
Is there any reason that a sport can’t fill that competitive need? All the techies I know seem pretty content with completely abusing themselves while playing ultimate frisbee, or soccer, or basketball, or what-have-you. Granted, I’m a girl. When life gets desperate, I just have a good cry. Despite the ‘sociology professor’s’ assertions on what else I might do…
…And of course, the sociologist blames video games.