Class? Politics? Economics? What’s that?
The ACLU is promoting (on Facebook) a list it drew up last April of “10 Books Politicians Don’t Want You to Read.” Interesting. Something socialist no doubt, a communist item, an anarchist one, a Randesque libertarian one, maybe a Proud Boys tract, a sermon on gun rights…
No, not so much. What do we get?
Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”
“Heather Has Two Mommies” by Lesléa Newman
“All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson
Ok I haven’t heard of that one, what is it? (And by the way it should be Not All Boys Are Blue, not All Boys Aren’t. Everybody gets that wrong these days; it’s irritating.)
In “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” LGBTQ+ activist George M. Johnson writes about growing up Black and queer, including about his experiences being bullied, his first sexual relationships, and other stories throughout his childhood and adolescence in New Jersey and Virginia. The book is currently being targeted for removal by at least 14 states because of its LGBTQ+ themes.
So Johnson is lesbian and gay and bi and trans and queer? Where does he find the time?
4. “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe
Nonbinary and asexual author Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, details eir journey through adolescence and coming into eir self-identity in “Gender Queer,” an autobiographical graphic novel about what it’s like to not fit into traditional norms of gender and sexuality.
5. “Melissa”* by Alex Gino
*Formerly published as “George” until April 2022
So books are transing now?
The protagonist of the children’s novel “Melissa” is a fourth-grader coming into her own identity as a trans girl in a world that knows her only as “Melissa.” The author, who goes by they/them/their pronouns and identifies as genderqueer, wrote the book due to a longstanding void of voices like theirs in literature. “I wrote it because it was the book I wanted to read,” Gino explained. “I wanted trans voices telling trans stories.”
So that’s half of the ten, and four of the five are about lesbian/gay or trans stories. Four of the last five are about race and one is about “6-year-old Starr Carter, a student at an affluent prep school who comes from a low-income community.” That’s the closest they get to the Marxist or socialist or libertarian tract.
The ACLU seems to be run entirely by very young people who don’t yet know much.
At least one of those books — Gender Queer — is partly targeted for extremely explicit sexual content, including illustrations. I came across a list of books people were trying to ban from schools and tried to look up some of them to find out why. That was one.
It was interesting. Every story faithfully reported that “conservative parents/mobs” were upset over the LGBTQ++ content, and many of them contained a description similar to the one here. There were lots of quotes from teachers and others defending the book. There were examples of innocuous illustrations from the graphic novel. But there were no quotes from anyone objecting. No links to anyone objecting. I had to keep searching till I finally found some conservative sites, and eventually some examples of the illustrations they were objecting to.
Yeah. Some examples here:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/why-people-are-losing-faith-in-public-institutions/
I just noticed that the Young Adults fiction is now said to be for “18+.” Indeed.
From the description, I doubt the author journeyed through adolescence. It sounds like e/em/eir is still stuck in adolescence.
I’m sorry, ACLU, what was that you were saying about banning books? Oh, yes, I remember now.
So get off your high horse, ACLU. You and your creepy lawyer work as hard to ban books as anybody else does. Any balanced list of “ten books politicians don’t want you to read” should include Irreversible Damage, by Abigail Shrier, because you helped put it there.
STOP FACTING AT ME! THIS IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. SHRIER DESRVES TO BE BANNED!! CAN’T YOU SEE SHE’S AN EVIL BIGOT?!!!
Very special person Maia Kobabe, who demands others use e/em/eir when talking about her, details her journey through adolescence and coming into her self-identity in “Gender Queer”, an autobiographical graphic novel about what it’s like to not fit into traditional norms of gender and sexuality.
The protagonist of the children’s novel “Melissa” is a fourth-grader coming into his own identity as a boy that wishes to be a girl in a world that previously knew him as George. They author, who demands others use they/them/their pronouns when spoken of and identifies as genderqueer, wrote the book due to a long-standing void of voices like his in literature. …
The editor’s red ink sure gets a workout thanks to these very special people.
Maybe the All Boys Aren’t Blue people can join up with the Blue Lives Matter people. Or something.