For a country that screams we’re the land of the free, we really aren’t free to read whatever the hell we want. It’s 2022, why are we still challenging and banning books?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been taught about banned books and why they’re significant. We even have a week dedicated to banned books, which will be Sept. 18-24 this year. That week celebrates the freedom to read, but that freedom has slowly been chipped away. It’s a wonder we’re still allowed to read at all.
Life is beginning to feel a lot more “1984” these days. Missouri just passed a law that that bans both public and private school libraries from having books with “explicit sexual material” on their shelves. The law, passed on Aug. 28, defines this material as a visual depiction of sex scenes or genitalia, so it is based on images and not the text itself.
Seeing as this law only applies to visual aspects of sexual material, this will greatly impact the graphic novel and comic book genres. Many kids only read graphic novels and comic books. I see this all the time working in a library.
Parents come in talking about how they’ve finally convinced their children to start reading, even if just a graphic novel. Some children only have the mental capacity to read these genres.
Think of the kids that spent all summer in anticipation of returning to their school libraries so they could check out their favorite books, just to realize they have been swiped from the shelves.
Librarians and school employees that violate this law could face a class A misdemeanor, which holds a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $2000 fine.
Though the law makes an exception for artwork with serious artistic or anthropological significance, or science related materials, it limits children and teens in making personal choices.
The law is part of a bill on sex crimes and crimes against minors, and includes the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights.
I understand wanting to limit sex crimes against minors, but they should go about it in a different manner. The focus should be on monitoring the internet for children, especially in our digital climate. There are far more creeps on the internet that are more threatening than books.
In this very relevant case, parents have complained that books with such graphics cause their children to be groomed into becoming sex addicts. These parents are the same ones that will shove a tablet in their children’s faces without any parental restrictions or care for the possible consequences.
In my own experience with reading books with any sort of sexual material, I can guarentee that I’ve seen worse on TV. If a child is going to become dependent on sexual material, they’re more likely to find it on YouTube, TV shows, movies and even apps like TikTok that are not monitored nearly as much as they should be.
Simply put, correlation doesn’t imply causation. It comes down to this: if a parent doesn’t want their child to read certain books due to their content, that should be a conversation between the parent and child. It should not be a law that prevents all children from having easy access to whatever book they want.
Missouri’s law on these books with “explicit sexual material” is only the beginning. This action will spiral and soon enough, there will be even more restrictions on what we can and can’t read.