Juvey book politics
In seventh grade, my middle school librarian took scissors and taped paper to an issue of “Sport” magazine (or “Sporting” or something like that), not to be confused with Sports Illustrated. It was the much halcyon-ed “swimsuit issue”, which I suppose the publishers figured ” Our dominant competitor does it, we do too!”. The librarian stripped the magazine of the busts and butts of the various models, and taped paper in as a replacement. And two boys and I leafed through the magazine, mocking it in immature Beavis and Butthead fashion — or at least they did while razzing me.
I suppose that the Sport (or… Sporting) magazine swimsuit edition then ought qualify for the “banned book week” list — except, I guess, we have no actual challenge on it — which are the citations which propel things onto such a thing — whether the library board removes it, moves it to some “only eighth grade” check-out, or simply gives a perfunctory “thank you for caring” comment.
On that “eighth grade check out”, I refer to the situation with SE Hinton”s Outsiders, which I always saw sitting in the librarian’s office window with a note explaining ” reserved for eighth grade check outs”, A situation I found puzzling as it was a (kind of tedious) staple of seventh grade curriculum so everyone’s already read it, and I appreciate if students loved it so much to re-read, A cheap paperback edition shouldn’t be hard to find.
Today I see a headline from The New York Times. “How a Debut Graphic Memoir Became the Most Banned Book in the Country”. It strikes me as a funny use of the word ” banned”. Like, early in sixth grade (or maybe seventh, I don’t recall), I noted a stray copy of a flimsy bestseller from Jerry Seinfeld, one which I imagine gluts mid and big sized libraries before being shelved into the “buy for a quarter” stores. It did not belong at the school library, but damned if I thought the librarian bought it into circulation. I smirked and mocked privately bad library resource use. I found out, no — it was some kid’s copy from a proper library. Maybe my town’s public library — the one that when I checked out some Tintin books the librarian commented that they had moved them from the children’s section to the adult (741 point three digits I can’t recall) because “they’re not really politically correct”. At any rate, I could picture in the process to buy the Seinfeld book parental or educator objection — based on it failing the mission of the school library — if anyone were so foolhardy to put it on the list.
The book in question, “Gender Queer” — And having to jump through this article to find a reference to what various conservative websites point at becomes irksome.
Some who have lobbied to have the memoir removed from schools say they have no issue with the author’s story or identity. It’s the sexual content in “Gender Queer” that is not appropriate for children or school libraries, they say.
Close.
It’s a graphic memoir that deals with puberty and sexual identity, and includes a few drawings of nude characters and sexual scenarios — images that critics of the book were able to share on social media to stoke a backlash. The book explores the author’s discomfort with traditional gender roles and features depictions of masturbation, period blood and confusing sexual experiences.
It takes fourteen paragraphs to get to references the images that make it a ready made lightning rod, understandable even if one disagrees with polite and impolite condemnation. Responses in comments land on such become a tad unreal — it is the pointing out that kids have ready access to pornography anyway. Yeah, sure — and parents have to draw up how to navigate the presence in their kids’ lives.
I suppose my middle school librarian might have taken scissors and cut the erect or mounded penis and out as she did to the bikini bottoms of women on the magazine. Which I guess may makes for a compromise for communities who want to assert ally ship with lgbtq communities while maintaining boundaries. Or… maybe there is a queer Judy Blume proficient with the written word thus by definition not trafficking in dirty pictures?