Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent is a 1954 book by the German-American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham . In it, comics were criticized as harmful to young people and as inciting crimes. Together with the Kefauver hearings , in which comic book publishers and illustrators were publicly questioned, it was the culmination of an anti-comics campaign in the early 1950s. As a result, the Comics Code , a self-regulation of leading US comic publishers, was introduced.
content
In his book, Wertham criticized US comics as harmful to minors, glorifying violence and morally depraved. The focus of his criticism was particularly the publisher EC Comics , which published many pulp, horror and scary stories. He also attacked the three popular superheroes Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman , the three most important titles in DC Comics . Batman was a "homosexual pedophile" for Wertham because of his close ties to his young ward Robin , Superman was seen as an example of glorification of violence and blasphemy, and the strong, emancipated Wonder Woman was highlighted as "unmistakably lesbian and malefic." Wertham also stated that Wonder Woman's magic lasso was a vagina symbol.
"Superman teaches children to be omnipotent ... Batman stories are gay and pedophile ... and Wonder Woman is its lesbian, malefic counterpart."
In the case of Wonder Woman, the observations were not entirely unjustified from Wertham's conservative point of view. Wonder Woman writer William Moulton Marston was known as a feminist and had a penchant for bondage , so he liked to incorporate bondage elements into his comics. Batman author Grant Morrison said in 2012 that Batman has "many gay facets." Among fans, it is considered a running gag to call Batman and Robin (not taken very seriously) homosexual couples.
As has become known from recent scientific studies, Wertham's data have been modified to fit his theses.
Effects
Wertham's work hit a nerve and sold well against the backdrop of the McCarthy era and US citizens' panic of un-American elements . Comics were branded as harmful to young people, which resulted in public pressure to take action against the comic book publishers by the state. In 1949 a law had already been passed in Canada which stipulated the production and distribution of crime comics with two years imprisonment. In order to anticipate similar laws in the USA, the American comic publishers introduced the Comics Code, a common set of rules and, with the Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA), set up a voluntary self-regulation that monitored compliance with the code and awarded seals of approval. As a result of self-censorship, many previously successful titles, especially those from EC Comics, could not be continued. Sales declined and major publishers cut many smaller titles but not major series like Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman . Smaller comic publishers either had to merge or give up.
Within DC Comics, the work led the respective authors of Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman to introduce new characters in order to make the series more family-friendly as understood at the time. At Superman , his younger cousin Supergirl was introduced in 1958, who grew up not with him but with loving step parents. In Batman debuted two female characters named Batwoman (1956) and Batgirl (1961), which flirted each Batman and Robin, and Wonder Woman finally her younger sister was Wondergirl invented (1958).
Wertham himself developed a weakness for comics in the 1970s, so that he wrote the book The World of Fanzines in 1973 , in which he praised comic fanzines as "useful creativity".
Allusions
- In an episode of the cartoon series The Justice League (DC Comics), sensation-hungry talk show host Glorious Gordon Godfrey leads a book called The Innocent Seduced by Dr. Frederic in front. It supposedly proves that the Justice League, led by Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, is criminal and harmful to minors.
- In an issue of Mad magazine , a Dr. Frederick Werthless (German: Dr. Frederick Wertlos) pictured desperately trying to prove the connection between juvenile delinquency and baseball .
expenditure
- Fredric Wertham: Seduction of the Innocent , Amereon Ltd, 1956, (New edition: Main Road Books, 2004, ISBN 0-8488-1657-9 )
Secondary literature
- Robert S. Warshow: The Study of Man: Paul, the Horror Comics, and Dr. Wertham , 1954
- RC Harvey: Wertham Revisited: Seduction in the Eighties. Comics Journal 106 (3/1986): 72-90, 95.
- Ami Nyberg: Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code , University Press of Mississippi, 1998, ISBN 0-87805-975-X
- Carol L. Tilley: Seducing the Innocent: Fredric Wertham and the Falsifications That Helped Condemn Comics , Information & Culture: A Journal of History, Volume 47, Number 4, 2012, pp. 383-413
swell
- ↑ a b Andreas C. Knigge: Comics - From mass paper to multimedia adventure , p. 141 f. Rowohlt, 1996.
- ↑ a b Batman is gay - and has been for 60 years ( Memento from May 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Die Welt Online
- ↑ Seduction of the Innocent, chapter “I Want to be a Sex Maniac” ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Original quote: “One boy said about Superman, 'It teaches“ crime does not pay ”- but it teaches crime.' Another said, 'Superman is bad because they make him sort of a God.' Still another, 'Superman is bad because if the children believe Superman they will believe most anything.' (…) Several years ago a California psychiatrist pointed out that the Batman stories are psychologically homosexual. Our researches confirm this entirely. Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to realize a subtle atmosphere of homoerotism which pervades the adventures of the mature 'Batman' and his young friend 'Robin.' (...) The Lesbian counterpart of Batman may be found in the stories of Wonder Woman and Black Cat. The homosexual connotation of the Wonder Woman type of story is psychologically unmistakable. [It] which portrays extremely sadistic hatred of all males in a framework which is plainly Lesbian. (...) Where Batman is anti-feminine, the attractive Wonder Woman and her counterparts are definitely anti-masculine. "
- ↑ Suffering Sappho! A Look At The Creator & Creation of Wonder Woman , CBR
- ↑ Carol Tilley: Seducing the Innocent: Fredric Wertham and the falsifications did Helped Condemn Comics . published in: Information & Culture 47 (4): 383-413. 2012.
- ↑ Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946–1962: Essays on Graphic Treatment of Communism, the Code and Social Concerns , Chris York and Rafiel York (Eds.), 2012
