PDA

View Full Version : The Evil of Hangman



kally
1-23-11, 1:57am
It was suggested to me recently that playing Hangman, that word game where they have to guess the letters is inappropriate. I guess this is because we would be hanging a stick figure.

So the hangman game was removed from a games day. What do you think?:devil:

Jemima
1-23-11, 9:14am
I think any kind of violence in games is inappropriate. It just numbs people to the real horrors that go on every day. It may even lead some innocent kids to think violence is okay.

A coworker's son, thirteen years old, hanged himself two years ago. No one is sure if it was a suicide or a game that went wrong. It just destroyed her.

Miss Cellane
1-23-11, 9:21am
I've seen the game played without the scaffold being drawn. The game starts with a full stick figure and for every wrong letter guessed, a part of the figure is erased (easiest to play this way on a blackboard). I wondered why the change was made, but now realize that it was probably to eliminate the perceived violence in "Hangman."

To be honest, although I am pretty sensitive to violence in the world around me, and in movies and on TV, Hangman never struck me as "violent." It's a stick figure on a blackboard or piece of paper. I've never felt that I was hanging a real person or acting out any violent tendencies. Just frustrated because I'm a very bad guesser at Hangman.

Stella
1-23-11, 11:17am
That strikes me as silly and like Miss Cellane I am pretty sensitive to violence.

Graphically violent video games and TV, sure I see a connection between that and real life violence and can see how it desensitizes people. Hangman, not so much.

Crystal
1-23-11, 11:19am
It was suggested to me recently that playing Hangman, that word game where they have to guess the letters is inappropriate. I guess this is because we would be hanging a stick figure.

So the hangman game was removed from a games day. What do you think?:devil:

A game is a game. Not real. I don't think playing hangman is going to turn the players into people who hang other people.

Gina
1-23-11, 11:54am
This never occurred to me. I grew up playing the game and never associated it with violence. But I am not a violent person by nature. It's however hard to know what might affect another person.

Are 'we' becoming too politically correct/protective in this and other things, or is there a sound basis for such a change? I don't know. The game as originally played is what I know. I probably would have enjoyed it just as much if the stick figure had fallen into a puddle of water instead of being hanged.

fidgiegirl
1-23-11, 11:58am
I would argue that if you really think about it, it's really not so hot to be drawing someone getting killed.

Plus there are a million other ways to play it without having to have it be THAT. Build a drawing, or take parts of any drawing away (erase the wheels on a car, then the window, then the headlights, etc.) . . .

I would agree that playing hangman is not going to make a kid go hang someone.

I used to play it the traditional way in the classroom and have had kids get riled up over it, especially if they are kind of overly into violence or have behavioral problems to start with and make the connection and make a big deal out of it. So now I prefer to go with other versions of the game. Plus since I'm a foreign language teacher, the image I'm using can help support the phrase or word being guessed.

iris lily
1-23-11, 12:02pm
I remember when my friend's young daughter, about 8 years old, made an drawing that attracted the notice of her parents. It showed an image of what looked like a row of black men being hanged. My friend asked in that careful, neutral tone that parents must use when confronting the uncomfortable "What is that interesting picture?" The daughter replied that she had drawn the spindles on thier staircase. The row of "men" were really just pieces of turned wood.

I don't have a moral here, it's just a random story vaguely tied to "hanging men."

Hattie
1-23-11, 12:57pm
Are 'we' becoming too politically correct/protective in this and other things, or is there a sound basis for such a change? I don't know.

WOW I am pretty sensitive to violence but this is one that I never would have considered "violent". I think we are going wayyy overboard with things like this. Hmmm....let's think here.....How about "Battleship" - sinking someone else's ship thus causing the death of crews of imaginary people - violent?! "Ring around the rosie" - originally written about the plague. Kids were dancing around a corpse that was all red and swollen. "husha, husha" was "achoo, achoo" kids were sneezing. "We all fall down" - all the kids die. It doesn't get much more violent then that. Ban it! Rock-a-bye-baby - "down will come baby, cradle and all". The poor little baby will die if it falls down with its cradle. ooh and don't forget poor Humpty Dumpty. "all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again!" Violence! Ban that nursery rhyme!!!

Okay, so I am going wayyy overboard here. But I am just trying to make a point. I don't think hangman is played in eager anticipation of hanging a poor stick man until he dies. It is just a fun guessing game. The games I feel absolutely without a doubt should be banned are those horrible video games where people get blown up, shot up, etc. There is nothing to learn by playing those games. There is no human interaction playing those games. They have no redeeming factors.

Our children learn by example. If we live our lives showing respect and compassion for our fellow man then our kids will grow up the same way - plain and simple. Hangman won't be what's corrupting them. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. *S*

kib
1-23-11, 2:21pm
Um ... so are we also advocating early death with G-H-O-S-T?

Float On
1-23-11, 4:17pm
Never, never thought about it. In fact, I thought it was a great game to teach my boys spelling skills. We played endless hours of hangman in restaurants while waiting for food to be delivered. Wonder how many bus boys we traumatized by our paper napkins full of hangman games. And I thought I was being helpful to the waitstaff by keeping the boys patient and quiet instead of being a problem table full of little boys.

bae
1-23-11, 4:26pm
I think in a country which spends more on our military than the rest of the planet, that is one of the few remaining countries with the death penalty, where inner city youths have to grow up in the face of gang violence, that worrying about "Hangman" is a bit precious.

Kumbaya.

CathyA
1-23-11, 5:23pm
Bae, you have such a way with words that is arrogant and discounting. I mean really, why did you have to use the word "precious". Can't you learn to be a bit less insulting when you disagree with something?
Some people believe that peace starts at home.........even if the whole damn world is going down in violence. Seriously.......what were you trying to say? That because the worlds a mess, we should just give up/give into it?? And really......can't you adjust your wording to be a bit less insulting?
And I'm not over-reacting to this one thread. Its just a continuation of how you relate at other times too.

bae
1-23-11, 5:26pm
Cathy - you seem to be carrying other burdens than what my simple words said. Namaste.

CathyA
1-23-11, 5:29pm
No Bae.....its you and your arrogance.

bae
1-23-11, 5:39pm
Are personal attacks the order of the day here at these new forums?

Gina
1-23-11, 6:57pm
I think in a country which spends more on our military than the rest of the planet, that is one of the few remaining countries with the death penalty, where inner city youths have to grow up in the face of gang violence, that worrying about "Hangman" is a bit precious.

Kumbaya.
The examples you give are certainly more troubling than hangman. But isn't the point that we as a society have to start at some point to decrease the everyday violence we are willing to accept? I doubt a kids' game such as hangman is much of a problem, but is the effect of normalizing violence as we grow up cummulative so that as adults we are more willing to accept it on a grander scale?

I sometimes think that humans are simply violent by nature, and pretending we are not is the anomaly. I'm not suggesting we shouldn't try to reduce violence, but as the earth gets more and more crowded, sadly we might be fighting a losing battle.

kally
1-23-11, 8:12pm
I agree with you. I always have believed that we are violent as a species. I mean lots of other animals are violent in their attempts to breed, feed and dominate. I think we are basically cut from the same cloth.

Susan
1-23-11, 9:02pm
I really think that worryiong about Hangman is a bit silly. How did the previous generations grow up without beconing violent nutjobs while playing these games? I understand that cops and robbers is also out. As is dodgeball. Instead of banning anything, 'cause that's censorship, how about teaching children that it is a GAME, not real life. Kids used to be able to understand that.

creaker
1-23-11, 10:53pm
There a lots of things where you have to draw lines (sorry, I'm punning hangman :-). What I mean is for many values and issues you have to draw lines - following them to their ultimate ends leads into absurdity.

I never considered hangman "violent" as child - but I never did for chess, Risk, Stratego, War(the card game), etc. It was just too abstracted from actual violence.

Dodgeball was another matter altogether. Some kids played for fun, some kids definitely played to hurt.

Glo
1-24-11, 12:58am
If that's all the violence we had to worry about".............

Gregg
1-24-11, 12:33pm
I really think that worryiong about Hangman is a bit silly. How did the previous generations grow up without beconing violent nutjobs while playing these games? I understand that cops and robbers is also out. As is dodgeball. Instead of banning anything, 'cause that's censorship, how about teaching children that it is a GAME, not real life. Kids used to be able to understand that.

As long as we're being politically correct to the Nth degree, let's not forget that hangman is sexist and promotes violence against MEN. It is hangMAN, afterall, not hangperson. :devil:

Seriously, I have to agree with Susan. And as creaker mentioned the "violence" of hangman is just too abstract to be seen as a real threat. We played it in school and so far as I know not one person from my class has violently lashed out at others. Echoing the sentiment of others, if that were our biggest worry or threat to our children we'd be in pretty good shape. Can't help thinking we'd be better off expending our efforts to end a few wars where REAL people get killed.

ApatheticNoMore
1-24-11, 1:07pm
There a lots of things where you have to draw lines (sorry, I'm punning hangman :-). What I mean is for many values and issues you have to draw lines - following them to their ultimate ends leads into absurdity.

+100

Getting upset about hangman is ridiculous! Yes, I played it as a kid, no it was not violent


The examples you give are certainly more troubling than hangman. But isn't the point that we as a society have to start at some point to decrease the everyday violence we are willing to accept?

Even then hangman? Hahaha, really?

Since the violence in one's rhetoric is considered so important these days how about the fact that the politicos are always declaring a "war" on something or other. Now I don't think all of these metaphorical wars are themselves illegitimate (unlike our real wars). To reach back in time: the "war on poverty" for instance, I can sympathize with the ends that was trying to acheive. But why use that language for it? Why call it a war? Never even mind such modern absurdities like the war on terror.

And no let's not even go into the EVERYDAY violence that is part and parcel of many kids home life!! Nor the fact that bullying goes on at school everyday and blind eyes are turned. No the main problem is hangman!


I doubt a kids' game such as hangman is much of a problem, but is the effect of normalizing violence as we grow up cummulative so that as adults we are more willing to accept it on a grander scale?

The problem is more than just we are willing to passively accept violence (though that might be bad enough). Violence is often actively cheered. Why does a presidents approval rating go up when they start a war? (of course it might not at this point, we may have reached diminishing returns in terms of popularity on all these wars.... or not)

CathyA
1-24-11, 2:37pm
I think it boils down to what you as a parent feel comfortable with. If it bothers you, then encourage your children to find other games to play. I didn't let my kids watch violent cartoons or shows like Power Rangers. When my son was a teenager, he wanted to play some of the computer war games. I decided to compromise, fearing he would get too interested in these things, if I forbade them. Well, I eventually didn't allow him to play these, and I regretted ever compromising. His behavior definitely changed during and after he played these games.
Now granted, a game of hangman isn't the same thing, but it just comes down to what parents feel represents their ethical/philosophical positions.
Kally, if your kids like this game alot, maybe you could fashion it into something else, that doesn't represent a man hanging?
And even if everyone on this forum disagrees with you, it doesn't mean your thinking is "wrong". You have to do what you feel is right in your heart.