Every year during Book Banning Week, I’m asked for quotes about censorship. It makes me sad that I have so much personal experience with this. Many of my books are formally banned in school libraries and elsewhere, usually for the so-called crime of mentioning female reproductive health, birth control, or simply empowerment.
And, like the books of many authors whose work deals with similar topics, when my books aren’t “formally banned,” they’re “soft banned.” Soft banning is when the books simply disappear from shelves (often because they are literally thrown into the trash) without any sort of announcement to the public that they’ve been challenged–because they haven’t been. They’re thrown out from fear of being challenged.
I agree strongly with Judy Blume’s opinion that censorship grows out of fear–fear of new knowledge, ideas, and concepts. I understand that parents only want to protect their children, but the way to combat fear is not to restrict information on the subject…it’s to talk about it more! It’s to make information on the subject even more widely available, more mainstream, and consequently easier to understand. By doing so, the subject automatically becomes less scary!
But unfortunately in many cases the opposite is happening. Instead of teaching children how to solve problems by giving them the information they need to do so, some people want to simply remove the problem.
This is only a stop gap solution. The problem remains. And in the long run, children who are lacking in knowledge become less able to solve their own problems, less resilient…and more vulnerable to failure (and predators) of every kind.
That’s why I’m so thankful to all the students, parents, schools, teachers, and librarians who are working to keep books accessible to all. It was a school librarian who got me hooked on reading (and writing) by finding the perfect book for me. Ironically, that book is now banned in many schools because it teaches the lesson that the only way to defeat a bully is to stand up to them.
I’ve spoken many times about how, when dealing with my own encounter with bullying in the fourth grade, Blubber saved my life. It did so by teaching me that my situation wasn’t unique, and that it was okay to talk about it with adults. It even taught me how to–and, perhaps more importantly, how not to–handle a situation like it in the future.
This is what books are supposed to do…impart knowledge. Knowledge is a gift. It provides us with solutions to problems every single one of us encounter every day. Why would we want to keep knowledge from children that might help them one day in their own struggles…or even result in a future career for them?
That’s why I’ve come to believe that censorship is about fear…and bullying. Bullies have only one desire, and that’s to control others. They do so by preying on our fears–and an especially common fear is that somehow our children are going to be harmed.
We can’t control every single thing in the world that could potentially harm a child. But we can control our knowledge and awareness of them. Why would anyone want to keep that knowledge and awareness from us, and especially from the children who need it most?
The obvious answer is that it’s because they’re bullies, and they want to control us.
But the only way bullies can stay in power is if we allow them to.
Censorship is bullying. Let’s stand up to book banners!
More later.
Much Love,
Meg
