Is Dennis a Bully?

[philcom55]

While most aspects of racism, sexism and child abuse have been carefully removed from the modern Beano I can't help wondering if scenes like the one on this week's cover, where Dennis 'accidentally on purpose' hits the long-suffering Walter's thumb with a hammer, could be seen as encouraging children to bully those weaker than themselves. I know that Walter is regularly portrayed as a no-good sneak who wants to see Gnasher locked away for good, but this doesn't alter the fact that he presents an exact stereotype of the sort of sensitive, withdrawn (and probably gay) victim of so many schoolyard campaigns of intimidation that - in the most extreme cases - lead to desperate suicide bids.

If nothing else I'd have thought that these scenes represent a dangerous hostage to fortune that could explode in DC Thomson's face if some journalist ever got it into his head to link Walter with a real-life tragedy!

What does anyone else think...?

- Phil Rushton

[BeanoMaster]

Most children probably know that they shouldn't copy Dennis when he does something like that - I would never fire a catapult at my teacher!

It's just funny though

[dandy mad]

So Walter gets his thumb whacked by a hammer Dennis did it ultra PC journo gets irate saying the Beano should be banned as it promotes bullying which in turn leads to suicide etc etc jeez really??

[Lew Stringer]

While most aspects of racism, sexism and child abuse have been carefully removed from the modern Beano I can't help wondering if scenes like the one on this week's cover, where Dennis 'accidentally on purpose' hits the long-suffering Walter's thumb with a hammer, couldn't be seen as encouraging children to bully those weaker than themselves. I know that Walter is regularly portrayed as a no-good sneak who wants to see Gnasher locked away for good, but this doesn't alter the fact that he presents an exact stereotype of the sort of sensitive, withdrawn (and probably gay) victim of so many schoolyard campaigns of intimidation that - in the most extreme cases - lead to desperate suicide bids.

If nothing else I'd have thought that these scenes represent a dangerous hostage to fortune that might someday explode in the DC Thomson's face if some journalist ever gets it into his head to link Walter with a real-life tragedy!

What does anyone else think...?

- Phil Rushton

Seriously Phil? Comics have risked this sort of backlash since the 1890s. Dunno about your old school but at the ones I was at, the kid who'd smack people with a hammer was the one least likely to read a comic, or anything, come to that.

[philcom55]

Funnily enough the comic violence in Beano and Dandy never bothered me as a kid. As with 'Tom and Jerry' or 'Bugs Bunny' it was always obvious that the characters were deliberately over the top, and not intended as actual role models. What's more the conflict generally took place between adults and children, and therefore gave me a kind of emotional release for the frustration I often felt at being constantly bossed around by teachers and parents.

However, I must admit that the tendency to ritually humiliate Walter has always disturbed me - and I really do think it's become more pronounced in recent years (apart from the cover image he's also targeted by Minnie and Roger in the latest issue!). As Beanomaster says I'm sure that most children know better than to copy such things, but I do worry that a minority (especially those who are already inclined to be bullies) will see this as a tacit validation of their own behaviour.

The fact is that in real life bullying is all-too common, and not a laughing matter at all. Besides which I suspect that for every reader who finds this sort of thing funny there will be others who are completely turned off by it.

Dunno about your old school but at the ones I was at, the kid who'd smack people with a hammer was the one least likely to read a comic, or anything, come to that.

I can certainly remember a couple of 'Tom Thug' types - and while it's true that I was more likely to be reading comics than they were, I was frequently depressed by the way in which strips like 'Captain Hurricane' seemed to actually approve of their dumb philosophy of 'might makes right'. Far better to read a series like your own in which bullies are shown to be losers.

- Phil R.

[dandy mad]

Dennis The Menace is the face of the Beano and has been for decades now and the stories have been watered down even more since I read it in the 80s and more watering down the character just to please people of a delicate nature will just render the strip useless and that will upset a lot of people

[Digifiend]

However, I must admit that the tendency to ritually humiliate Walter has always disturbed me - and I really do think it's become more pronounced in recent years (apart from the cover image he's also targeted by Minnie and Roger in the latest issue!).

Apparently Roger wanted revenge because he reported him to Mrs Creecher for cheating on a test. But then in his own story, not only is his teacher not Mrs Creecher, he also utilises Gnasher in a dodge - something which shouldn't currently be possible!

[dandy mad]

However, I must admit that the tendency to ritually humiliate Walter has always disturbed me - and I really do think it's become more pronounced in recent years (apart from the cover image he's also targeted by Minnie and Roger in the latest issue!).

Apparently Roger wanted revenge because he reported him to Mrs Creecher for cheating on a test. But then in his own story, not only is his teacher not Mrs Creecher, he also utilises Gnasher in a dodge - something which shouldn't currently be possible!

The Dog still missing then? Reminds of the missing Gnasher story from the mid 80s wonder if it'll turn up with a load of kids again?

[philcom55]

Dennis The Menace is the face of the Beano and has been for decades now and the stories have been watered down even more since I read it in the 80s and more watering down the character just to please people of a delicate nature will just render the strip useless and that will upset a lot of people

For the most part I'm inclined to agree Dandy Mad: I regret the gradual encroachment of political correctness in comics as much as you do - it's just that Walter seems to be a special case. In my opinion Dennis is a great character who needs an arch-nemesis just like Superman needed Lex Luthor or Sherlock Holmes needed Moriarty. To be honest I'd be much happier if Walter could be portrayed as a genuinely worthy opponent like them - an evil genius rather than a rather pathetic little kid that everybody picks on.

- Phil R.

[Raven]

For the most part I'm inclined to agree Dandy Mad: I regret the gradual encroachment of political correctness as much as you do - it's just that Walter seems to be a special case. In my opinion Dennis is a great character who needs an arch-nemesis just like Superman needed Lex Luthor or Sherlock Holmes needed Moriarty. To be honest I'd be much happier if Walter could be portrayed as a genuinely worthy opponent like them - an evil genius rather than a rather pathetic little kid that everybody picks on.

- Phil R.

Then you shouldn't regret "the gradual encroachment of political correctness", Phil, as its (Oxford) dictionary definition is:

"The avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against."

[philcom55]

The key word there is 'perceived'. One person's perception of political correctness can be another person's act of unnecessarily restrictive censorship.

- Phil R.

[Raven]

Whose perception would be most important there, though? Wouldn't it be that of the people socially disadvantaged or discriminated against, themselves?

We do have to be careful with words, and in saying "he presents an exact stereotype of the sort of sensitive, withdrawn (and probably gay) victim", you risk stereotyping yourself, as this suggests that gay kids are sensitive, withdrawn and "weaker" than the other boys, an age-old stereotype, which there's no reason to assume at all.

But Walter was traditionally the stereotype "sissy" boy character (pressing flowers, etc.) long familiar from popular culture, which, in the minds and intentions of those who used it, had long been a code for gay. Is he still presented this way?

Wasn't Dennis always a bully?

The D. C. Thomson bullying I thought most unsettling was that in Bully Beef and Chips, where Chips would often be quite violently assaulted through the strip, just for Bully Beef to get a little taste of his own medicine at the end. Bully Beef seemed a genuine psycho bully, and there wasn't usually much fun to be seen in his various assaults on Chips. Quite an odd strip.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I always felt that that Beefy out of the DANDY was a far worse bully than Dennis ever was; BB was a curiously sadistic specimen, who reveled in dishing out unjust pain to Chips and his other victims.

It was an extremely popular strip though; I had an amigo who still made a point of reading this strip [and nothing else in the comic] while still in his early 20s...the concept clearly struck a chord with many readers.

Dennis' misdeeds were obviously anti-social at times, but there was more imagination, diversity and 'charm' in the stuff he got up to-----he always got his just just desserts of course.

[Raven]

IPC had its own version of the picked on "sissy" stereotype in Shiver and Shake's Tough Nut and Softy Centre. Softy was a mother's boy, artistic, loved nature, hated sport - the usual coding - and was so weak, he needed his mother to carry him downstairs. Though Tough Nut's attacks on him didn't tend to be especially violent, and the strip often seemed to be mocking Tough Nut's continual attempts to demonstrate his "masculinity."

[philcom55]

Dennis' misdeeds were obviously anti-social at times, but there was more imagination, diversity and 'charm' in the stuff he got up to-----he always got his just just desserts of course.

I think that's the problem. In the 1950s and 1960s Dennis was allowed to be much more of an anti-social psycho nutcase than would ever be permissible today: a kind of juvenile 'Lord of Misrule' - as long as the normal rules of morality were restored at the end of each strip with a 'damn good thrashing'. The subsequent removal of any form of physical punishment (not a bad thing in itself) destroyed this formula forever, leaving a Dennis who was simultaneously less outrageous yet more mean-spirited. The thing I do like about the modern version is the way in which it has become increasingly surrealistic; I just wish the writers would concentrate more on this aspect and less on persecuting Walter.

Funnily enough, even though characters like Dennis and the Bash Street Kids passed totally under the radar during the 1950s backlash against comics in this country, I suspect that in America they would have been seen as wholly anathema by the notorious Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. This was brought home to me last weekend when I picked up this oversize album from the early 1960s featuring the US version of Dennis the Menace (curiously renamed over here as 'Just Dennis: The Pickle'):





...Clearly British and American opinions on what constituted a 'Menace' differed quite radically in those days!

- Phil Rushton