We took Power Ranger privileges away for a week. We’ll be anxious to see if it was a positive adjustment. For those of you who don’t yet know them, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are the children’s show characters of current rage.
The Power Rangers perpetually battle an evil woman and her vile henchmen, none of whom have lips that move in synch with what they’re saying. Their disputes generally revolve around the total destruction of Earth. The evil woman is for it. The Power Rangers are agin’ it.
No surprise that children are for it: The show combines elements of several previous kid sensations, everything from dinosaurs to Transformers, and Ninja Turtles to Buck Rogers.
To save our planet from imminent danger, six everyday teenagers are first transformed into sleek outfits of various colors.
If the sleek outfits don’t save the day, Rangers call on the power of mechanical dinosaurs.
If they’re beaten back by evil monsters at that point, they all combine like Transformers into a “Megazord!” All except Tommy, the green Power Ranger, he turns into a mechanical Godzilla with a drill bit tail.
And when that still doesn’t turn the evil tide, which it never does, they call out the Ultrasaur, which is like a tank with a dinosaur head. Godzilla and the Megazord then jump into the Ultrasaur and shout, “FIRE ALL WEAPONS!”
This approach has always proved an effective deterrent to the destruction of the planet. And, at the end of the show, the Rangers espouse virtues and social guidelines any parent would be proud to have their children hear.
In themes variously presented, they promote teamwork. They urge youngsters not to give up. They tell kids the highest form of martial arts is to turn an enemy into a friend. And to their credit, they have come flat out and said, “We are actors. This is pretend.” Yet what our children have learned most from this is to kick at each other ’til someone cries.
Unable to stop the kicking with scolding, timeouts and threats, we have taken away their Power Ranger privileges for a week. Such action is not without precedent.
A similar thing happened to me over the Three Stooges. Immediately after watching an episode, I “Nyuk, nyuk, nyuked” my mother with an apparently powerful tweak to the cheek.
“Woo, woo”-was she mad! I didn’t see the Stooges for a while after that. And I know I thought my mother was being unreasonable. I mean, c’mon, I didn’t doink her with a ball peen hammer. I didn’t grab her by the nose with tongs, or ask her to “pick two” fingers, then jam them in her eyes. What was she upset about?
She was upset about the fantasy of TV leaking dangerously into the real world.
I know there is still some controversy over whether TV has any negative affect on childish behavior, much like the controversy over whether smoking has a downside.
But I believe children need to be selective in their imitation. And I believe parents need to help their children make those selections. And while I don’t know if taking Power Rangers away will keep my kids from kicking each other, I do know I haven’t tweaked my mother’s cheek in 30 years.
