Unnecessary Censorship? Iowa Library Bans ‘Explicit’ Books After Complaint
In 2021 there's a lot of talk about "cancel culture". Or, censorship run amok. One could make the argument that this is what's in play in this story. Or, you may fully support an Iowa library's choice to yank a couple of books due to scandalous content. Here's the information, you can decide for yourself.
Waukee, Iowa library nixes novels
Books that were said to contain graphic depictions and even illustrations got waxed from the Waukee Northwest High School. According to We Are Iowa, excerpts from the nefarious novela featured graphic talk of incestual trists between and man and an underage minor. While illustrations in another book showcased nudity and sexually explicit acts. Oh my. If you're like me, you'd love to know what books these are. I mean, a friend wants to know...
There's a couple of issues I have here. Number one, who's this nark? And number two, what is the bigger picture. As in, what are these books actually about? I'd wager they're older, and likely not as taboo in context. Or, taboo because that's important to the story. I realize these are high school kids but, we're preparing them for college and 'the real world'. If these books are historically significant, why are they being yanked from the shelves?
A small group of people or one person can't decide what content everybody else, accesses, and that I think a lot of times parents and community members are extremely uncomfortable with teenagers getting information about sex or hat or seeing graphic descriptions of sex -ACLU of Iowa
I must not be alone in wondering as the ACLU of Iowa is also concerned. According to the report, they also feel the work as a whole is vastly more important as yanking a book without all the details leaves out the context of these writings.
What do you think? If you're like me, you're all of the sudden more interested in reading.