Cancel Culture is Out of Control
But think of the children!
The year is 2022, and cancel culture has gotten out of control. However, and I hate to disappoint you, I’m not talking about canceling celebrities or TikTok content creators. Instead, I’m referring to the rising pattern of parents and politicians “canceling” books.
A few stories have flooded the news streams about school boards that have “canceled” or banned books within the last year. Perhaps one of the most shocking and egregious is the Tennesee banning of the book Maus.
Now, for those who may not know, Maus is a Pulitzer prize-winning novel that depicts the author’s parent’s experience in the holocaust as a graphic novel. Jewish people are depicted as mice, while German Nazis are depicted as cats. Just as a quick side note, this was one of my favorite books in High School. The illustration is beautiful, the story-telling is memorizing, and the creativity is unmatched. Despite the obvious importance of teaching the truth about the Holocaust in the United States and beyond, the parents of the Tennessee school board decided the book was “inappropriate” for their children to read in school.
According to school board members, they banned the book due to “unnecessary use of profanity and nudity and its depiction of violence and suicide.” Now, beyond the obvious that the “nudity” claim is insane because THEY ARE MICE AND CATS, let’s just talk about the other things real quick.
Now, I hate to break it to everyone, but middle school and high school kids use profanity daily. I know, shocking. Hiding a book that says profanity is not going to stop them from doing that, and it’s certainly not a good enough reason to ban a book. Now, with the suicide and violence commentary…. I realize these are difficult things to discuss…. but I also want to say that children in middle school and high school deal with these issues too. Honestly, if children are to read a book that has graphic or triggering details, I would rather they do it in school where there is adult supervision and guidance counselors who can help students through these difficult topics.
Unfortunately, this is not the only book that has been banned and there is a growing and terrifyingly successful pattern of parents petitioning school boards to remove books related to Racism, Sex, Gender, and LGBTQ+. I just want to make something abundantly clear to people. Teenagers are having these conversations. They are talking about sex, race, gender, and lgbtq+ relationships, perhaps more than ever before. Banning these books does not stop these conversations, what it does is make people feel more alone. More alone in their struggle to be understood by their peers, more alone in their individual identities, more alone and isolated from feeling like they can talk to their parents or teachers about their lives. You’re not bringing them closer when you do this, you’re pushing them away.
I’ve lived in Mississippi for six years, and recently two stories blew my mind that I feel like haven’t been talked about enough. First, a Mississippi Mayor withheld over 100,000 dollars from a public library until they removed any lgbtq+ literature. Second, a teacher was fired after reading I Need a New Butt! a children’s book written for “readers between four and eight.
Let’s just start with this absolutely lovely Mayor. I won’t even get into the inefficacy of holding funding from a library in a state with some of the least educational resources in America, though, I could write a whole other thing on that. No, I’m just going to focus on why he did that. These are not school books. No one is being forced to read them who doesn't want to. But, for those who do want to, these books are a beacon of hope, especially in Mississippi where homophobia still runs rampant. These books are hope that life can be different. They offer conversations children, teens, and adults may never have in real life. For a brief second, someone reading that book may feel a sigh of relief, a moment of safety, or a sense of clarity, and people want to rip this away for their own personal comfort. This isn’t helping anyone, all it causes is hurt.
Now, for the book about the Butt. I can’t say I’ve ever read it (or remember it), but from what I understand it is just a playful book about a child that didn’t understand butts were supposed to have cracks, thought his was broken and went on a search for a new one. Seems cute and harmless right? Well, to this school the book was “inappropriate” and the butts being described in “various colors, shapes, and sizes” was apparently incredibly offensive.
I just have one question about this situation… did anyone ask the children what they thought? What they thought about the book? What about the teacher? Again, in a state with low literacy rates, and few teachers, firing a good teacher, who merely wanted to read the children he taught a cute and funny book is not helping anyone. All it does is harm.
In all these situations, did anyone ask the children what they thought? I have heard over and over as I got older that kids nowadays are “weak” or “soft” compared to the older generation. But with all of this banning, firing, and withholding of funds, it doesn't seem to me that the young people fit this description, it’s the older, the parents. The parents are the ones withholding crucial information of history, shutting down difficult but necessary conversations, and firing good teachers for no reason.
In a country that is falling behind in education, has a shockingly high amount of children living in poverty, and is living through a continuous deadly and terrifying pandemic, is this really where we should be spending our energy? Should we be teaching our children that history is “too difficult” or certain topics are “too inappropriate?” or should we be encouraging free-thinking, open and honest communication, and programs that benefit the children who are being left behind. I would argue the second, but what do you think?