Banned Books Week: Why I Changed My Mind About It

Because Banned Books Week was last week, and the conversation is still fresh in everyone’s minds, I wanted to take this time to address this hot topic and why I’ve changed my opinions on it.

*In this post, I am specifically talking about banning or restricting books in public school library and public library (in regards to children and minors) contexts. I’m focusing on how this topic relates to and affects children/minors. The topic of book banning in the broader cultural and societal sense (mainly in regards to legal [major] adults) is another thing for me, and I intend to address it after this post.*

Banned Books Week, and other anti-book banning social initiatives have always supported something that I can generally agree with: books should not be banned. Because if you restrict what information people have access to, then you control the narratives, what people believe, the flow of information, and it’s much easier to oppress the population. Book banning is not a good thing, but, as I’ll discuss more as we move along, there are instances where restrictions should be in place for some books.

Book Banning 2023 — What It Looks Like

This year’s motto for Banned Books Week is “Let Freedom Read.” Generally, I’d love this motto. I’m all about freedom and liberty for all, and free, open access to books and information is essential to having well-educated, informed, and strong citizens.

This year’s campaign did well in spreading awareness and getting many involved. What’s concerning though is the majority of the books that this year’s campaign is defending against bans and restrictions.

Remember when I said I generally disagree with book bans? Well, here is an instance where I claim exception.

Most of the books that are being criticized and called to be banned should be. Let me explain why.

My whole problem with the majority of the books that are called to be banned or restricted is this: they’re sexually explicit, and they are mainly about children or minors performing these sexual acts (graphically depicted in these books) on each other. Such works as Gender Queer, All Boys Aren’t Blue, and This Book is Gay are the most recently published examples on one of the lists for the most contested books of 2022 (Banned Books Week website). I think it should be obvious that this type of pornographic material (I won’t be mincing words) should be nowhere near children, and certainly not allowed on school premises.

What the folks who are defending the open (and unchecked, unmonitored, and unsupervised) availability of these materials say when anyone objects to this are cries of “oppression!”, “Nazis!”, “fascists!”, and other such inflammatory (and quite untrue) statements.

I understand the concern of some of them. I don’t generally believe in banning books either. I think it’s an extremely dangerous path for a civilized and educated society to venture down.

Here’s where I differ from the Leftists: I don’t consider these works (and many others like them) to be genuine literature. This is straight-up pornography.

And I don’t think any sane, responsible, and moral adult would or should defend pornographic materials that are available to, and geared specifically towards, children and minors.

What truly baffles me is the overwhelming defense these works, those who create them, and the educators who push/allow them get. It’s become more of a focus on “waaa waaa victimhood!” and “they’re banning and burning books like Nazis!”, rather than “we should be protecting children and minors from sexually explicit material, especially without the consent and acknowledgement of their parents and guardians.”

Libraries, book clubs, and government and educational institutions scream the loudest about protecting the books, but they’re silent when the conversation turns to “how is protecting these pornographic works protecting the children that you have influence and authority over?”.

One of the reasons why they decry these proposed bannings so loudly is, they claim, for the sake of having information freely available. Sorry, but pornography is not information. It is degrading, immoral filth that dehumanizes those depicted and stunts the mental, emotional, spiritual, and moral health of the individual consuming it.

“Exposure to sexual culture causes boys and girls to become consumers of people. It puts them on a path toward distorted love and disrespect of others. Pornography, sexual fantasies and sexual talk become the norm.” (Huerta, Focus on the Family Canada)

The above quotes describes just one of the adverse affects of pornography consumption by minors. The proposed books to be banned, which contain sexual language and imagery, have the power to have this affect on the children and teens that consume it.

The priorities of these so-called “educators,” and others in authority roles in educational systems, seem so insanely askew that I have to question what the motives, intentions, and agendas are.

Parents and Guardians are being ignored and ostracized

Something else that is really concerning is the complete and utter disregard for the opinions of the parents and guardians of these children. Concerned parents create lists of items they find inappropriate, antithetical to their personal religions, divisive, brainwashy, and/or possibly harmful, and when they bring it to their school boards, they are essentially told by “educators” and others around them that they are radical extremists who are proposing dangerous ideology and wanting to silence minorities. Instead of properly addressing the concerns of these parents, the school board, community of educators and librarians, and their wider community at large (and probably the internet as well) dismiss, shame, mock, and label them as “dangerous.”

There’s a quote that I think sums up this perfectly:

“These radical, woke authors and school officials do not merely feel comfortable or compelled to expose children to such material. They possess a predatory sense of entitlement to be allowed to continue to do so even after they have been exposed by the very working mothers and fathers whose children are being victimized by them. Parents have every right–indeed, every responsibility–to determine and dictate what their children are exposed to when they are under the supervision of another adult ostensibly attempting to teach and educate. The rights of radical teachers or authors do not and will not ever supersede the rights of parents.” (Center for Renewing America)

These parents and legal guardians are first and foremost just that: the parents and legal guardians of these children and minors, as well as taxpayers, functioning members of their school district communities, and citizens of the wider local community. To disregard the concerns and wishes of these citizens and continue imposing an ideology antithetical to the commonly accepted one of that community is one step closer to totalitarianism.

My Thoughts . . .

This is all to explain why I don’t mindlessly back the “Banned Books” campaign anymore. Again, I am not a proponent of book banning, burning, etc. in the broader scope of things, but materials that are allowed to be around children and minors is one area where I encourage heavy restrictions — specifically in regards to sexualized material of all kinds.

Do I think young people should be introduced to hard topics as they begin to mature into adults? Yes. Do I think those topics should be heavily monitored for safety of the individual? Also yes.

There’s a whole conversation to be had about what constitutes safety, because it’s easy for people to try and change the definition. When definitions for words start getting changed to fit certain agendas or ideologies is when things start to become increasingly subjective. The key to this is: the ones who insist that words adhere to certain definitions are the ones who truly control the narrative and the discussions. I’ll maybe write another blog post on this topic soon 😉

There is so much evidence to prove just how detrimental exposure to, and consumption of, pornographic material at young ages (or any age really) is. This is why I can’t support those types of books being available to children at all. This is why I support book restriction in some cases.

Protecting children (and teens, minors) and their wellbeing is why I support restricting certain types of books in public school and library contexts. I refuse to call these kinds of books “literature” as I don’t see it having any sort of literary value at all.

This is not the last blog post that I’ll be writing on this. There’s so much more that I have to say on this, and it needs to be said. I don’t care if it’s considered controversial. I don’t care that my opinions will ostracize me from the rest of the “English major community” or what have you. Truth is truth.

This is something I sent to a friend of mine, and it’s quite fitting to conclude this post with:

“Evil proliferates in the shadows, so it must be brought to the light. As Christians, we are called to be salt and light — to purify and preserve goodness.”

Notes

“Primer: School Systems are Corrupting Children with Pornography.” Center for Renewing America, 14 March 2022. https://americarenewing.com/issues/primer-school-systems-are-corrupting-children-with-pornography/

“About.” Banned Books Week. https://bannedbooksweek.org/about/

Huerta, Danny. “How pornography affects a teen brain.” Focus on the Family Canada, 2018. https://www.focusonthefamily.ca/content/how-pornography-affects-a-teen-brain