Seeing Red...
I am not sure why but ever since my son has been born I have really favored the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) for him. For those who don’t know much about the ninja turtles, there are four: Leonardo(Leo), Donatello(Donnie), Raphael(Raph) and Michelangelo(Mikey). Leo is the leader, Donnie is the smart; tech savvy one, Mikey is the goof ball and Raph is the aggressive one.
I started to have the cartoon series on in the background while Ru played and he loved the theme song so we kept up with the show, and I started to really enjoy it. I never watched TMNT growing up so I was new to this superhero team but through the show ended up having a favorite, Leo. Of course I would gravitate to him, he is the leader and likes to follow the rules. My husband always has really liked Raph, the rebel of the group, and we thought that Ru would probably like Mikey while growing up because he is the funniest out of the group. But in listening to the theme song over and over again (that being my son’s favorite part) I got to know the theme, and this is a portion of that:
“Leonardo's the leader in blue,
Does anything it takes to get his ninjas through
Donatello is a fellow, has a way with machines
Raphael has the most attitude on the team
Michelangelo, he's one of a kind,
And you know just where to find him when it's party time
Master Splinter taught them every single skill they need
To be one lean, mean, green incredible team”
I started getting annoyed that the description of Raph was “attitude”… who wants that characteristic to be a role model for their kids? I felt this way through watching every season, until the most recent season aired. The ninja turtles were in space for some reason and Raph fell down a cliff and ended up finding an alien baby turtle. He was so caring and loving to the little turtle and searched for his mom but when he couldn’t find her he decided to take care of it. Then half way through the season they brought this little guy back into the story and his mom was coming down from space to find her baby, Raph got all excited and said “You hear that little buddy, your mom is alive and she is coming to get you!” In that moment it clicked for me, Raph is fiercely protective and loyal to the few he cares about, and this is definitely a character trait I want my son to see.
This, however, may not come across all the time as anger is Raph’s biggest issue, he of course is the Red turtle and red is generally associated with anger. “The color red is an intense color that is packed with emotion ranging from passionate, intense love to anger and violence — representing both cupid and the devil. It is a hot, strong, stimulating color that represents excitement and energy. Studies show that the color red can create physical effects such as elevated blood pressure, enhanced libido, increased respiratory rates, enhanced metabolism, increased enthusiasm, higher levels of energy, and increased confidence.” –bourncreative.com
A main stereotype for men is they become angry more often than women, but in my research this is not the case anymore, anger is just shown differently through men and women. According to a research study women tend to show their anger “in passive-aggressive maneuvers such as sulking or destructive gossip”. Men however, “scored higher on physical aggression, passive aggression and experiences of impulsively dealing with their anger. They also more often had a revenge motive to their anger and scored higher on coercing other people.” –apa.org
“Things are not getting better in anger behavior," notes Thomas, who cites the many incidences today of violence among children. "We need to understand what anger is about before we can intervene effectively.” –apa.org This is why characters like Raph are so important for kids to see, he is a character that has emotions that little kids struggle with and this specific show has Raph deal with these issues to know that allowing his anger to get out of control is not okay. Kids need to learn who they are and how to deal with the specific characteristics they have. TMNT does that well with having 4 different personalities but that they still can come together and be a team. So, yes I will be using superheroes to teach my son life lessons. God gives us all different avenues to use, see what your child likes and use that to help them grow and learn to use the personality that God has given them.
