Stupid people are everywhere, even in the library

[orangerful]

With One Word, Children's Book Sets Off Uproar

The one word? Scrotum.

The book is targeted at 9-12 year olds and the entire library world is bubbling about this book. It just won the Newberry award so it's actually being read and school librarians and others are yanking it off the shelves.

It's just embarassing. Scrotum isn't some vulgarity, some swear word or sexual act. It's anatomy. And it's not even HUMAN anatomy in the book - a dog is bit on the scrotum by a rattlesnake. That's it.

UGH! I hate people who jump all over little things. They're not even reading the book - however good or bad it might be, just yanking it off the shelf or refusing to order it. And it just makes librarians look BAD! No one says boo about us until some bunch of moron librarians decides they're going to raise a fuss about the word 'Scrotum'. I'd love to see what they thought of 'Nick & Norah's Inifinite Playlist' the young adult book I just finished which features the word "fuck" on almost every page and has lots of dry humping and almost a blow job in a hotel snack room. They'd pass out.

Actually, no they wouldn't. They wouldn't read the whole thing. They'd open to page one, see all the f-bombs, and they'd ban the book.

Then these librarians say that the author clearly didn't know her audience. Whatever. What kid isn't slightly obsessed with the body and it's functions? What kid doesn't love using scientific sounding words? And with a book that has a female protagonist, I'm sure seeing a dog being bitten by a rattlesnake on it's scrotum will keep the boys reading for at least a couple pages.

God, I LOVE my library system. If we don't have something, it has to be pretty bad. If it's a J book that people complain about, we make it Y, if it's a Y book, we make it adult. And then no one cares. It's out there, you can get it, we won't deny you the right to read whatever you want.

Neil Gaiman posted his thoughts on the issue too. I hope his rogue librarian theory is true.

This stuff makes me SO angry. I really cannot think straight enough to properly rage about it.

Comments

[vertigozooropa.livejournal.com]

They taught us about "private" anatomy in first grade. They showed us drawings of a naked boy and a naked girl, and pointed out what bit was what.

One girl raised her hand and said, "I have a cousin that lives in Vagina." The teacher smiled and replied, "That's Regina, dear."

The point is, if we're taught, "penis, testicles, vagina," in first grade, what's the problem in learning the scientific term for the skin around the testicles? That's like telling us about nipples, but banning areolas.

This is frustrating. They're teaching kids that homosexuality is perfectly normal (because there's no sex in that), but that dog's balls are totally inappropriate (mostly because they're just so sexy).

In the lesser-quoted words of Joss Whedon's Preed: "I weep for the species."

But in happier news, I found a copy of Sergei Lukyanenko's The Day Watch at my library!

See, I took your advice, and now I look at the new books at the library, to borrow books instead of buying them.

[bittertwee.livejournal.com]

“But you won’t find men’s genitalia in quality literature.”

haha- I'm glad she quickly qualified that with "At least not for children" because I was already making a mental counter-list. Starting with Tristram Shandy, which was one of the first novels ever written and has men's genitalia as a central theme, I believe.

It's a pretty funny statement, actually. It gives me a weird mental image of pulling a book off the shelf, opening it up, and shaking it to see if men's genitalia fall out. I must be tired..

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

haha, okay, well I must be tired too because I just laughed way too much at that last bit. What a mental image.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

yay! Go you and the library patronizing! I still need to read 'nightwatch'. I've checked it out twice and both times it was left at the bottom of the pile until I had to take it back. Someday though!!!

See, they aren't allowed to teach any of the "private" anatomy over here, not until 5th or 6th grade, then you get a very peripheral "sex ed" where you're split off into two classes and the teachers get your parents to sign permission slips and all that jazz. By then, it's too late, your own body is a total mystery.

Sexy Dogs Balls would be a great name for a band. Or a first album.

[vertigozooropa.livejournal.com]

I'm still laughing.