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From: hxe@rayssd.UUCP (Heather Emanuel)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Re: Violence in movies
Message-ID: <1090@rayssd.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Sep-85 12:42:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: rayssd.1090
Posted: Wed Sep 25 12:42:04 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Sep-85 06:38:03 EDT
References: <140@nvuxg.UUCP> <1902@reed.UUCP> <1512@hammer.UUCP> <1921@reed.UUCP> <728@ttidcc.UUCP>
Sender: hxe@rayssd.UUCP (Heather Emanuel @ Raytheon Co., Portsmouth RI)
Organization: Raytheon Co., Portsmouth RI
Lines: 36

In article <1921@reed.UUCP> purtell@reed.UUCP (Lady Godiva) writes:
>... It's strange - but someone getting shot doesn't make me cringe,
>whereas someone getting stabbed or cut does...  Anyone else feel this
>way? (About knives vs guns vs whatever.)

And The Polymath answers:
> I have similar feelings about knives vs. guns.  My guess  is  it's  because
> we've  all  been  cut  accidentally at one time or another in our lives and
> know what it feels like.  Most of  us  have  never  been  shot.  It's  much
> easier to empathize with something you've experienced yourself.  We've also
> been desensitized by endless shootings on television and in films where the
> real effects of being shot are censored out to avoid offending the majority
> of people watching.

I think that what Jerry (The Polymath) says is probably true (makes
sense, anyway).  However, in studies I've read on violence -
specifically murder - it is pointed out that stabbing is a very
personal method of hurting someone.  It requires a physical
proximity that shooting does not and, thus, much more of a personal
'relationship' with the victim.  In fact, the murderer often has to
"hug" the victim in order to actually stab.  Interestingly, stabbing
murders are almost exclusively the domain of men.  [This study
discussed a case of two teenage girls who went on a murder spree,
stabbing old women, and how they were almost completely devoid of
emotion, which is how they were able to stab all these people.]

Well, back to fun singles issues!

-- 
--Heather Emanuel {allegra, decvax!brunix, linus, raybed2} rayssd!hxe
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