http://cbldf.org/2014/10/the-decade-animated-udders-went-under-wraps/
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My 13-year-old is currently reading Boy in the Striped Pajamas and already read Prisoner B-3087. She found out about Maus and wants to read that, and the one thing that concerns me about it the most is the fate of Art’s mother (ETA: already mentioned upthread). (Which may or may not have been a concern to those in McMinnville.)
Not a good way to approach this (or anything) but now I’m thinking to hand over Maus to her just out of spite.
ETA…
I had already loaned her People’s History of the US but I don’t think she was too enthused, yet.
(& another edit for spelling…)
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And Susanna and the Elders. Nothing like a bit of Biblical voyeurism.
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Then, yes, it’s the local school board that is the problem, but don’t be suprised to see something similar crop up in other places if enough pressure is not applied to get this dumb shit overturned.
And as @shuck noted from Neil Gaiman’s tweet, this is an organized movement to shut down criticism of the far right. It’s an organized, national movement and needs to be treated as such. We NEEDED to do that from the 90s, on, but we did not, and now we’re dealing with it in the mainstream.
It needs to be both.
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Exactly. For anyone interested in more details on the tactics of the fascists in regard to school boards, here’s a story of it happening in New Mexico.
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Plenty of kids will check out stories just because they are on a list of banned books. The forbidden has always been exciting. Of course, kids trying to read Maus just because they heard it contains nudity may end up disappointed.
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Please don’t think I’m minimising the issue or your situation - but it’s also true that even the Conservative Party isn’t run by religious fundamentalists in the way that the Republican Party is in the US.
The issue over conversion therapy et al is not a religious thing here. The campaign is clearly being funded by the US rightwing evangelicals, but the groups here are not quite the same.
Again, it’s a bad trend and when even the EHRC seems to have been suborned, I’m not sure it’s going to be a pleasant few years. I do, however, think that on the whole our religious communities are less likely to follow the TERF path compared to the US and they are far less likely to fall into line behind this particular cause.
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Sex and nudity are of course, normal. The latter being our default state.
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"Cochran proposed revisiting the entire curriculum over concerns it was developed to “normalise sexuality, normalise nudity and normalise vulgar language.”
Says the person going out of their way to normalize Nazism. In a sane world this would lead to the removal of every one of these people from the school board, not the banning of the book.
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And that matters how? Does it matter if the motivation is “religious” or not, when the harm done is precisely the same?
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But, if it is the meticulous depiction of a semi-naked male body being tortured to death (ie, crucifixion)… I presume that this school board could not get enough of it.
I still viscerally remember my 7-year-old, non-christian self being casually introduced to the barbarity of christian religious stories. To this day, I do not understand what is so comforting about being “washed in the blood of Jesus.” christianity should only be permitted to the R-rated audiences.
And as for “I’m Wild About Harry” being too racy, I’d start reading from Song of Songs:
Your lips are like scarlet thread.
Your mouth is lovely.
Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.
Your neck is like David’s tower built for an armory,
whereon a thousand shields hang,
all the shields of the mighty men.
Your two breasts are like two fawns
that are twins of a roe,
which feed among the lilies.
Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb.
Honey and milk are under your tongue.
Does the Tennessee School Board even read their Bible?
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Nazi-ng to see here. Carry on.
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The book was not banned in Tennessee schools.
The book was not banned in one district.
The book was not banned at any school.
The book was not banned at all.
The book was removed from their 8th grade curriculum.
Can we at least temper arguments against the thing that actually happened?
Frustrating.
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uhhhh. . . that’s a curious line of reasoning.
“Indoctrinate” them that. . . murder and racism are wrong?
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Burning books doesn’t literally require fire.
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What sort of contorted definition of “banned” does not include “curricular removal”?
What the latter means is that teachers are “banned” from teaching it, no?
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Umm the one that includes it’s still in the library, you can bring it to school and read it yourself, your teacher can recommend it to you.
Are you suggesting any time they change any book in the curriculum they’re banning it?
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Yes, I am.
Are you suggesting that you don’t know what the word “ban” means?
Yes, you are.
Here, have a look at this definition:
It includes this example:
A school board might put a ban on all books that refer to Jefferson’s mistress if they don’t want anyone reading about her.
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