Two things from today's Sympatico/MSN home page just grabbed my attention and demanded me to write a brief statement on each one. I don't often glance at the headlines when I log out of my Hotmail account, but these two caught my eye.
Firstly, this 'article' on a study that indicates that professional wrestling "may spur violence in teens". (And yes, I'm drawing conclusions from the article, not the study. Bad Doc, but it serves to illustrate a small point.) I know a lot of people are smart and know this already, but correlation does not equal causation. A direct quote from the article: "For girls, watching wrestling led to higher rates of starting a fight with a date, being a victim of a date fight, carrying a gun at school, fighting, fighting at school, and being injured in a fight." Really? It LED to it? How can you prove that exactly? Again, not having the study in front of me, they may have more evidence to back up their point, but I would have been MUCH more comfortable if that sentence had "is associated with" instead of "led to".
The very next sentence in the article is bizarre, too: "And like boys, these girls said they drank or used drugs during a fight, the study found." They used drugs DURING the fight? That would be kind of awkward. What, are there groups of violent teenagers pounding the crap out of each other while with bongs and beer bottles in their hands? It might be true, I don't know - particularly given professional wrestling's association with foreign objects - but it's just awkwardly worded. I was unimpressed with the quality of this article, and although that may be a case of the pot calling the kettle black, well, sometimes the kettle is REALLY black.
Secondly, and on a much sadder note, the man who gave the world one of the greatest movie quotes of all time has passed away. I don't know much about Bruno Kirby's body of work (aside from a notable few), or know him personally. But the man gave me the immortal classic "You made a woman meow?" And he has a special place in my heart for that.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Two Quick Things
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2 comments:
I find it amazing that these studies don't state the reverse - that someone who is inclined towards acts of physical violence may also be more inclined to *watch* shows that glorify it.
Dave Meltzer wrote about this a week or so back; apparently the study itself is pretty old and was originally done during the 2000-2001 height. Not sure why media chose to jump on it now.
Man, I didn't know Bruno Kirby died. If it makes you feel any better I have a catfish named Bruno Kirby (he has a mustache)and although he has seen better day he is alive. I also have a plush Electric Mayhem sitting on my couch. I think we might know each other....
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