August 12, 2024, 10:28 a.m.
It’s not a good time to have a raunchy book in a school library in America, or at least in Republican-dominated states. Last week, government officials in Utah and Iowa, who have learned no lessons from Tipper Gore’s crusade against explicit language in music and are generally spineless sycophants more concerned with scoring political points with reactionary conservatives than with actually educating children, decided to ban a whole range of books – fiction, poetry, nonfiction, whatever – under the guise of “keeping pornography away from children.”
First, HB 29 came into effect in Utah and thirteen titles were immediately banned from classrooms and libraries, including Sarah J. Maas’ entire A courtyard of thorns and roses series and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (I don’t remember it being particularly sexy, although there are those naked blue guys) and Rupi Kaur’s Milk and honey (honestly, what). The law requires public schools to withdraw books if they “banned in either three districts or two school districts and five charter schools,” and we can be sure that the list will quickly expand beyond these first thirteen books.
Not to be outdone, a federal appeals court put Iowa’s Senate File 496 into effect immediately, requiring schools to remove any texts (except religious ones, because they’re not even trying to hide the theocracy thing now) that “describe sexual acts.” The law also bans instruction on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity before seventh grade. The Iowa law was originally set to pass in 2023, but was blocked last December by a federal judge who said the law’s vagueness could allow for the mass removal of books—perhaps because he looked at this report from PEN and the Des Moines Register and found that nearly 3,400 titles were banned in the first six months after the law came into force.
Idaho, Tennessee and South Carolina have also taken measures to limit the titles available to young people. Idaho’s law is particularly strict with libraries: it allows complainants about a book’s presence on the shelves to seek damages of up to $250 if the book is not moved to the “adults only” section within 60 days.
Putting aside my general feelings about the need to update the English curriculum for students (some of the canon just gets lost in teenagers, no matter how great it is, and being forced to read something can turn a student into a lifelong enemy of literature—heck, just ask some of the government officials who voted for these bans), the irony of the ban is The Handmaid’s Tale because of the description of sexual activities in the book, while religious texts remain unquestioned, is more painful than ever. The banning of books like 1984 And Brave new world And Mouse continues to demonstrate that those in power are afraid of stories that might – might! – inspire their audience to think differently.
Moreover, preventing children from discovering the world through literature will undoubtedly diminish their life experiences. I wouldn’t trade my own moments of sexual awakening or even just growing bodily awareness that I’ve experienced through reading books that are sure to end up on the banned lists in these states for anything in the world. Instead of running away from it or trying to sweep it under the rug, we should encourage children to do things like read. The eyes of the Dragon and then ask their teachers, parents or government officials about the first scene, which involves the king’s flaccid penis. Who knows, maybe everyone will learn something useful.
