Torture Porn and Genetics

Now that we've learned about gore and the dark side of humanity and all that fun stuff it's time to talk about the justification of torture horror and genetic predisposition to violent behavior. As a fan of torture horror movies like Saw and Hostel, discussed in the article in my previous post, I found the book The Philosophy of Horror by Thomas Richard Fahy very interesting. There is a chapter in the book in which he presents his argument for the justification of torture horror. Many of the sources I have discussed so far lean towards being against horror content because as a fan of horror, I wanted to investigate the opinions of those who disagree more than those who agree. However, Fahy takes my side in giving the horror genre justification, and quite effectively. He argues that "pure cruelty obviously has no rationalistic justification along the lines of interrogation or retribution, but it may trouble us nonetheless as something we would enjoy if we were in the torturer's shoes. The implication of the audience through the torturer's purposes and experiences is both essential to the genre and a primary source of its appeal" (52). Essentially what Fahy is saying is that although horror viewers aren't typically murderers or torturers, we find it interesting to view the films through the torturer's perspective because it is one that we will certainly never experience in reality. It can be compared to watching a superhero film and putting yourself in the shoes of the hero; what villain will you fight? What civilian will you save? Which power will you use? It's interesting and engaging to the audience to do this, just as it is for horror viewers watching a film. Is there anything wrong with this? Some may argue yes, but as long as no one is mimicking the actions in real life, there really is no problem. The exceptions are those discussed previously that take on copycat criminality due to an infatuation with the horror characters. However, this is not the common case. Fahy presents another argument comparing torture horror to old witnessing of executions, "I claim only that torture-horror offers a modern presentation of the implications of retributivism and that alone may be sufficient to justify the enjoyment of torture-horror. Retributive justice in film is no more immoral than witnessing actual retributive actions" (48). Thus, torture horror viewing is similar to when people used to watch executions; they both offer a sense of retribution without having to commit any acts of retribution yourself. Many of us want severe criminals to get punished with the death penalty because it is a sense of retribution for the family who was victimized by that offender. The same is the case when watching a horror film; we want the tortured to be tortured for some reason they gave us previously in the film or that will be discovered later in the film. Of course there are some torture films in which the torturer simply tortures random people for fun, but they are usually less engaging and geared more toward those who enjoy the gore element. Altogether, torture horror can be justified, as well as other types of horror, but it is recommended that if it's not what you enjoy, then just don't watch it. However, it could be interesting to watch and attempt to see why those who like it do so. Just as I have learned about why people don't like horror, those who don't like horror can always make the same effort. You might end up actually becoming a fan!

As you may know from reading my previous posts, I wanted to look into the idea of predisposition to violence. I found an article that presented some of the most interesting information I have learned throughout my research. The article is from Dailymail.com and is written by Sarah Griffiths. It discusses the possibility of genetic predisposition to violence caused by a variant of cadherin 13 (CDH13) and monoamine oxidase A (MAOA). CDH13 deals with neural connectivity and is linked to impulse control, whereas MAOA causes less recycling of dopamine, which was mentioned in my first post as a reason for why people enjoy horror films. Griffiths references Professor Jari Tiihonen of Karolinska Institute and his statement that, "when compared to the control population, non-violent offenders were not observed to exhibit either variant to a greater degree, indicating that these genetic variants may be specific to extremely violent behavior." So non-violent offenders didn't exhibit the genetic variants, whereas the violent individuals did, thus showing a relationship between the genes and violent behavior. So the question of whether it is possible that genetic predisposition to violence exists may have an answer. I think that more studies need to be done to ensure the correlation between the genes and violent behavior, but it is definitely a significant indicator and could help with future crimes if the genes can somehow by regulated in predisposed individuals. The most interesting piece of information regarding my research came from this article in which Griffiths mentioned German neurologist Dr. Gerhard Roth. He conducted research and found that in the brain scans of violent individuals, there is a dark area in the same spot. Roth explained, "when you look at the brain scans of hardened criminals, there are almost always severe shortcomings in the lower forehead part of the brain...this is definitely the region of the brain where evil is formed and where it lurks." So criminals actually may lack elements of the brain that cause them to act as they do. This is extremely interesting and intriguing because it is significant for many of the same reasons as is the discovery of the genes. If scientists can find some way to substitute the missing elements of the brain in affected individuals or to somehow lessen the predisposition to violent behavior, the world could be insanely safer and crime rates could drop drastically. As a biology major and aspiring surgeon, this was definitely interesting to me and I really hope more research is done on these findings in order to see if something can be done about violent behavior.

Fahy, Thomas R. The Philosophy of Horror. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky, 2010. Web.

Griffiths, Sarah. "Are Criminals Born with a Murder Gene? Scientists Identify Cause of Violent Behaviour."

Dailymail. 28 Oct. 2014. Web.