bringbackbooks

[bringbackbooks]

Historical Context of Book Bans

Book bans today are often compared to book burnings of years prior. The most infamous being the book burnings committed under the regime of Nazi Germany before the start of World War II.  Sure, the act of removing a book from a library might not be as flashy or ceremonial as the burnings under the Nazi’s but their end goal is largely the same and many of the target communities remain the same as well.

Book burnings in Nazi Germany were a way of “cleansing” the culture of impurities. To erase undesirable history and facts that refuted the world view of Germany’s new leaders. Facts that could challenge authority have to go in a totalitarian country. The less a population knows about other groups the easier it is to play on fears and misinformation about them.

The material in the much of the books were deemed “un-German” a talking point eerily similar to when some defend censoring media today for its “un-American” values. Sure, bans aren’t as flashy as burnings, but they get the same job done for the most part. Limiting information, so that the population is uninformed and easier to influence.

This is why it is important to call for the end of book bans. To fight for the availability of books that are removed from schools and public libraries. Because todays bans might be tomorrow burnings if we aren’t careful.

[bringbackbooks]

Unintended Consequences

This is mostly an observational post based on what I have seen browsing book stores in recent years. Barnes and Nobles, the nation’s largest bookseller, frequently features a table usually near the entrance of the store highlighting books that are challenged or banned. Today I decided to check and as I expected they also have a section on their website highlighting many of these same books.

I am a believer in the mindset that if you constantly shame something for a child while raising them, they are more likely to seek it out. You create a degree of curiosity around it and can being a driving factor to make them want to seek it out. I believe a lot of book bans may be having the same effect.

How many of these books would have remained relatively obscure titles on a shelf that would soon be removed from catalogs for inactivity if it were not for the campaigns that target them? Now, they are highlighted in booksellers as “The Books They Don't Want You to Read.”

Could book bans be having the reverse effect than what the people challenging them want?

[bringbackbooks]

What Gives? Is there any pattern to book banning.

As of 2022 the state with the most book bans was by far Texas with 438 book bans. Florida and Missouri follow behind in 2nd and 3rd place respectively and the two of them are very close. 4th place Utah is a distant 109 total bans. This information is based on an article from AAA State of Play.  There are some surprising results from this information; by looking at the map provided we can see outside of the top 3 states that smaller amounts of bans have popped up in a variety of states.

I struggle to find much commonality from this map. In fact, the one thing I expected to see was the south by far leading in this category but states like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia are marked gray for having 0. This showed me that any bias preconceived notions of the states were not enough to consider where these bans are occurring most frequently. Though given the political climate of both Texas and Florida, I did expect them to be the top 2.

So, what gives? What’s the pattern then? Well, as the map graphic points out at the time of publication, 71% of voters opposed book bans. The calls for book removals are often coming from vocal minority groups that school districts just cave into. This explains why they occur seemingly random across the whole country and in states you would not necessarily expect them too. It could come down to both cooperative and weak nonresistant leadership allowing for this to happen rather than resisting.

[bringbackbooks]

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom keeps a tally of the most targeted books in the country and for last year the number 1 target was Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe. The ALA counted 106 challengers towards it, 24 more than second places All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson.  The two books are both LGBTQ+ works, in fact the top 5 books on their list for 2023 are tagged as such.

Those that call for the removal of these books often site sexual content for their concerns but there are plenty of other books with sexual content that do not make lists like these. The common denominator in many of these book bans is the LGBTQ+ nature of them.

Marshall University keeps tabs on targeted books and high profile cases of their calls to be removed. Indeed most of the requests to have Gender Queer removed stem from calls that identify it as “pornographic”. Gender Queer being a graphic novel probably increases the alertness some have had to its content as it is visual and not just textual.

Still, how can LGBTQ+ authors ever fully recount their stories if they must censor the most intimate parts? So much of the queer experience relates to biology and attraction that to call for it to be removed is censoring the accurate portrayal of the experience and diminishing the value of telling their stories. There is a glaring double standard as well with books that feature straight protagonists that can and do get away with similar material but because they are what is “normal” in society they are not nearly critiqued as harsh.

Many of these ban requests come from parents or staff that have religious views or conservative values. How they choose to raise their own child is one thing, if they want to monitor their child’s reading materials then that’s their right to do so. Banning books however harms communities and detracts from helpful resources that someone questioning their identity may have access to learn.

To learn about other instances of Gender Queer's targeting and to find other books that have been the targets of book bans you can explore Marshall Universities Library resources here https://www.marshall.edu/library/bannedbooks/gender-queer/

[bringbackbooks]

What are book bans? They are efforts at removing material from our libraries, materials that are usually singled out for featuring material that some feel is not safe for children. Books that teach about LGTBQ+ relationships, give an honest look at our nation’s history involving slavery and race, and other attempts at censoring history through the removal of books about it.

Censoring information goes beyond the obvious removal of material from the shelves, however. Amidst the rise of full bans some libraries have begun to commit soft censorship by reducing the footprint of some books in their catalogs. They aren’t put on display or widely marketed as even being present for fear of them being the next book called to be removed. There is also less orders for books that are like the ones already banned, unfairly targeting minority and LGBTQ+ authors.

The American Library Association keeps up to date data on the rising trend of book bans across libraries in the United States. The last 4 years have seen an alarming uptick in these attempts to censor information that should be publicly available and once would have been. The heightened temperature surrounding social issues in the country undoubtedly has played a role in this. The purpose of this blog is to highlight banned books and discuss them and why they were targeted.