Banned Books Week day 5!

SEX and WOMEN!

That’s right, it’s hump day so let’s look at challenges involving sex and women :-)

Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. Our Bodies, Ourselves. Simon & Schuster. Removed from high school libraries in Townshend, Vt. (1975); Pinellas County, Fla. (1975); Morgantown, W.V. (1977), and Helena Mont. (1978). Challenged in Amherst, Wis. (1982) due to its “pornographic” nature; Three Rivbers, Mich. Public Library (1982) because it “promotes homosexuality and perversion.” Challenged at the William Chrisman High School in Independence, Mo. (1984) because the book is “filthy.” The controversial feminist health manual was in the classroom and was the personal property of the teacher.

Day, Doris. Doris Day: Her Own Story. Morrow. Removed from two Anniston, Ala. High school libraries (1982) due to the book’s “shocking” contents particularly “in light of Miss Day’s All-American image,” but later reinstated on a restricted basis.

Duong, Thu Huong. Paradise of the Blind. Morrow. Banned in Vietnam (1988). The novel outraged Vietnamese leaders, particularly the sections describing the 1953-56 land reform campaign - its excesses and its management, its destructive effects. Party Secretary Nguyen Van Linh publicly denounced Duong as “a whore”; he issued a second banning order. The depictions of these situations and their repercussions established her leadership of the dissident movement, leading to her arrest and the banning of her work.

Eliot, George. Adam Bede. Houghton; NAL; Penguin. Attached as “the vile outpourings of a lewd woman’s mind” and withdrawn from the British circulating libraries (1859).

Gray, Heather M., and Samantha Phillips. Real Girl/Real World: Tools for Finding Your True Self. Seal Pr. Challenged, but retained at the Cape May County, N.J. library (2006). The book explores issues such as body image, emerging sexuality, and feminism.

Hite, Shere. The Hite Report on Male Sexuality. Knopf. Challenged at the Southern Pine, N.C. Public Library (1983) because it is inappropriate “for the development and moral character in children or anyone for that matter.”

Isben, Henrik. A Doll’s House. Penguin. Four members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee (1983) called for the rejection of Ibsen’s work because it propagates feminist views.

Kinsey, Alfred. Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Banned in South Africa (1953), Ireland (1953), and in U.S. Army post exchanges in Europe as having “no worthwhile interest for soldiers.”

I don't know about you, but I wonder what Doris Day could have done that was so shocking - oh, wait a minute, she a real person challengers, not an image! And to call a woman a "whore" because she wrote something shows exactly who stupid that person is. But I had to laugh about the Kinsey one [same book for the Human Male was also banned, and for the same reason]. When someone signs up for the Armed Services, do they also sign away their sexual desire?

Although we've seen some weird things this week, tomorrow are the ones that will make you think and some will make you gasp.