Comment by apparent
2 days ago
Were any of these books in the kids' section? That could be one reason.
Also, we shouldn't dilute the meaning of the term "book banners" to refer to anyone who doesn't want a particular book in a particular place (even if that place is a public library). In the US, we are spoiled to have zero actually banned books. Anyone who wants to is free to purchase any book they want, as long as it's for sale somewhere. People who don't want books that have sexual content (which a disproportionate number of sexuality-focused books do) in the kids' section might be fine with those books existing in a different section, or in a private bookstore. True "book banners" would want to enforce a ban on them existing anywhere. This is a subset — and quite possibly a small one — of the former group.
It's not just "sexual content". Take a look at any of the ban lists, like the one provided by the ACLU (https://www.aclu.org/cases/e-k-v-department-of-defense-educa...) from earlier this year. Many of the books are related to slavery, civil rights, climate change, and media literacy, and the orders banning them apply to schools on every military base around the world.
I dug up the list https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44517341
What counts as sexual content? Does any book with gay or trans characters count because that's what people are trying to ban. Maybe we should ban the Bible from libraries because it has plenty of sexual content as well.
I think part of the issue is that books about sexuality are much more likely than regular kid books to have sexually explicit illustrations. Some depict fellatio or other sex acts. Most people don't want their kids to have access to such content, regardless of the type of sexual act shown. I certainly fall into that camp.
Sexual education books are much more likely to have explicit illustrations. Stories about gay or trans characters are not. Both are challenged often.
No. It seems like there was an age appropriate sexual health book for 9-12 year olds
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Perfectly_Normal
I have another comment on this thread where I linked a lot of related information about this.
That was the only book that patrons sought to have removed from the kids' section?
Thanks for the wikipedia link. The criticism section is particularly enlightening:
> In a 2023 Slate article, Aymann Ismail, who until then had considered most attempts to ban books hysterical, was taken aback by the book's explicitness.
The important thing to note is that the book is being called "pornography" by the Clean Up Samuels group. It is explicit, but it is not pornographic. There are many many other books they want to ban completely simply because they features trans or gay characters.
While digging for this there does seem to be a young adult novel about a young gay man that does feature sexually explicit content (although it doesn't appear pornographic at all). The library keeps it in the "New Adults section. Which requires that anyone under age get explicit permission from their guardian to access, and they even created a new kind of library card to help moderate said access.
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It seems that reference is actually slightly cherry picked. The article it is lifted from [0], is the author reflecting on his own discomfort with the text, the same discomfort he believes drives the people wanting it be be banned. Ultimately he makes the case that books like this are actually ultimately a good thing.
[0]: https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/09/banned-books-list-i...
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