The Moral Substitute: Difference between revisions

Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. If those works aren't up to their standards, they will make works that are. And they can even throw in a message about their beliefs and views in these works. Thus they make [[The Moral Substitute]]. So now all those children can have their fun, while their responsible parents don't have to worry about that strange new music they didn't grow up on. Everybody wins and nobody loses right?

== Anime and Manga ==

== Comic Books ==

** The tract [http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0034/0034_01.asp "Angels"] actually ''denounces'' this trope. Its target? Christian rock music. ''All'' Rock 'n' Roll music is controlled by the Devil, and so-called "Christian" rock plays right into his hands. (Chick doesn't seem to have noticed the unintentional message that, at least in this case, the power of the Devil is stronger than the faith of true believers.)

== Film ==

== Literature ==

* There is a Christian ''[[Choose Your Own Adventure]]''-type series. One was on the dangers of Satanists, New Agers, and—for some reason—environmentalists.<ref>Perhaps a misinterpretation of the [[wikipedia:Gaia hypothesis|Gaia Hypothesis]] as a call to pagan Earth-worship.</ref> One of the endings for the latter plot involved starting a Christian environmental club.

** And, of course, ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' was written as a substitute for the ''Narnia'' books—from an ''antitheist'' viewpoint.<ref>Strictly speaking, any fiction that doesn't mention a deity can be considered atheistic or at least secular, but that's not the case with the HDM series.</ref>

* ''The Twelve Candles Club'' was a Christian—specifically, conservative evangelical—alternative to what the author saw as filth and immorality found in secular preteen novel series like ''[[The Baby Sitters Club]]''. The approach was... odd. Basically, each book would start with a fairly standard BSC-style plotline; the characters would make it to the second-to-last chapter without mentioning religion in any way, but then, when all hope seemed lost, one of them would suggest that the group pray about their problem. They would do so, and [[Deus Ex Machina|the problem would suddenly be solved by some miraculous coincidence]].

* Erik, the titular phantom of [[The Phantom of the Opera]] original book is [[Don Giovanni]] done right: [[Don Giovanni]] (and all versions of the Don Juan legend) plays Don Giovanni as [[The Casanova]] who [[Bastard Boyfriend|doesn’t care if he hurts the women he claims to love]] [[Enforced Trope|and is sent to hell at the final of the opera only to please the]] [[Moral Guardians]] that insists [[Don Giovanni]] must be punished so the audience [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing]], Erik (who is a [[Don Giovanni]] Fanboy) also is a similar [[Bastard Boyfriend]] who abuses Christine while claiming to love her, but after breaking Christine’s spirit and successfully blackmailing her into being her wife, let her go with Raoul ''by his own will'' after Christine gives Erik his first [[True Love's Kiss]], [[Show, Don't Tell|showing that]] [[Love Redeems]] even a [[Psychopathic Manchild]].

* The New Basic Readers were a series of grade school primers published in the 1930's through the 1960's, featuring, among other characters, [[Dick and Jane]]. They were published for the public school market. A division of this company, the New Cathedral Basic Readers, were the Catholic School equivalent. They kept all the secular stories of the original, but would add a few religious-themed stories (i.e. the kids read a Bible story, or buy a Blessed Mother necklace for their mom, or have a nun for their teacher).

* The ''Anti-Princess Series'' and ''Anti-Hero Series'' written by Nadia Fink and illustrated by Pitu Saá sought to challenge the traditional "princess stereotypes" exhibited by the likes of [[Barbie]] and the [[Disney Princess]] line, which young girls typically look up to but are criticised in recent years for what is perceived as shallow, saccharine and one-dimensional [[Disneyfication|Disneyfied]] tales (though in fairness the original folk tales the Disney Princess character arcs were based on weren't all that sunshine and rainbows anyway). Instead of princes to save [[Snow White]] or [[Sleeping Beauty]] or a [[Fairy Godmother]] to come to [[Cinderella]]'s aid, the ''Anti-Princess'' and ''Anti-Prince'' books portray real-world Central and South American historical figures in a realistic manner that still appeals to its target audience, though it has notably glossed over certain aspects of the subjects' lives.

== Live-Action TV ==

* Arguably, ''all'' TV channels owned by the Venezuelan government under Hugo Chavez's (and his sucessor Nicolás Maduro) rule. All of them try, with various grades of success, to promote an "alternative" view to the "imperialist" (read: American) channels, who means that most shows are devoted to how wonderful the government is and how evil the oppressors are. One of the channels was deliberately built as an "socialist" alternative to commercial channels, and even tried to do "social" [[Soap Opera]]s. It seems that the effort is not working, though; the combined ratings of all government channels are inferior to the least popular of the commercial channels, and even the directors of some of those channels admitted that they are not attracting enough viewers. Eventually some of them [[Network Decay|became what they sought to replace]], channels full of foreign shows with the [[ANSI Standard Broadcast TV Schedule|structure of more commercial channels]], only with abundant ads and indents from the government to remind the viewers what its ideological position is. Their ratings still hasn't rised up.

* The PAX television network was intended to be a family-friendly alternative to the major broadcast networks, but ended up being mostly infomercials and reruns, along with [[Glurge|Billy Ray Cyrus as]] ''[[Glurge|Doc]]''. It's since changed its name to [[ION]] and its programming now consists ''entirely'' of infomercials and reruns, with the occasional movie during prime time hours (including, oddly enough, ''[[Discworld/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'' during the Christmas season). It later consisted of reruns from CBS primetime shows, including ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]'', ''[[NCIS]]'', and ''[[Criminal Minds]]'', indicators of some definite [[Network Decay]].

== Music ==

== New Media ==

== Radio ==

== Sports ==

* The Soviet Union formed the [[wikipedia:Spartakiad|Spartakiads]] from 1928 to 1937 as they initially branded the Olympics as "bourgeois". The event was put on the backburner when World War II broke out; after the war, they finally relented and sent a team at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952. They still continued to hold Spartakiads within the Soviet Union up until 1991.

* In response to the rash of political drama spilling over to the Olympics, particularly the wave of tit-for-tat boycotts such as the United States-led boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, as well as the retaliatory boycott by the Soviets in 1984 in the Los Angeles Olympiad, American broadcaster Ted Turner (of CNN and ''[[Captain Planet]]'' fame) organised the [[wikipedia:Goodwill Games|Goodwill Games]], a charitable sporting series made with the intent on providing a much less politicised alternative to an event which Turner felt has degenerated more into national or [[Cold War]] posturing than sport.

== Tabletop Games ==

== Video Games ==

== Web Comics ==

== Web Original ==

== Western Animation ==

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