this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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What pornographic books with strapons are you talking about
Yeah, I'd like specific examples, this sounds like a strawman.
Gender Queer has over 200 pages, and in it there is this one scene on one page. According to https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2023/gender-queer-book-in-elementary-schools/ it was never recommended for kids. Maybe it was in some school libraries in the 16+ section or whatever, which can be argued how age appropriate that is, but pragmatically, at that age they've probably seen way worse.
It's no wonder that people are called bigots over this if their approach is totally in bad faith; they don't want a constructive discussion, it's just performative outrage and virtue signalling.
Just because some of them have "probably seen worse" does not mean we should allow sexually explicit materials in school that are not strictly textbook in nature. And as a freshman in high school at 14, I had access to all the books, no matter what age grouping they were in.
I'm not sure what bad faith about it. The characters sext each other at one point, where one talks about explicit sex acts they want to do, and there's images of one sucking on a strapon the other is wearing. You can argue that you think this material is okay for all high schoolers (most would disagree), but claiming those who are LGBT members or supporters are just trying to start somthing in bad faith isnt the truth.
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the following books:
IT - Stephen King
Memoirs of a Geisha
A clockwork orange
Forever - Judy Blume
The Gossip Girl Series
The Song of Ice and Fire books
That's a small list of some very popular books I'm personally aware of with sexually explicit content, some of it very violent. They're readily available in many school libraries. Clockwork orange is even studied in some high schools. The reason people are saying you're arguing in bad faith is because the nature of the bans are deliberately targeted at LGBT content. There are plenty of other books with much worse content and you're not seeing a national movement to ban that content. Hence the push-back.
I've only ever read ASOIAF and Memoiars of a geisha from that list. I don't remember how explicit scenes were in Memoairs, so I'd have to go back and re-read, but from my memory the scenes were not graphic in detail like the books above. I don't think ASOIAF should be in school libraries at all, and I'd be onboard with removing those too.
The focus on these books being lbgt has some context behind it. When quarantine happened, parents suddenly had an open door into what was being taught in classrooms. To be clear, this wasn't all teachers and all classrooms, but it turns out that there were some classrooms that were teaching things that parents weren't happy about, and it was happening across the country. A lot of this material was centered around "anti racism" which was highly prejudiced and discriminatory in nature, and LGBT teachings that lots of parents found to be inappropriate (which, for the most part, probably came from religious parents).
Whether it's fair or not, this caused parents to zoom in on these specific categories of material. These categories are being examined with a fine-toothed comb, which is why they're in the spotlight.
The problem is the whataboutism you're displaying here. "What about these books?" You're right that there are most likely inappropriate books in schools that aren't categorized as lgbt, and I do think you'd have an avenue or removing them, if they're on the level that these are sexually. But you completely cut off that option by doubling down that the books originally ousted should remain. "These aren't that bad, other books are worse" isn't a reasonable argument when people can see them with their own eyes and see that they are. Also, I'd love for you to discover any other book in a school library that instructs teens on how to make their own pornography, which, besides the obvious tie in to child porn, would label these kids themselves as sexual preditors and put them on the list.
You could easily make these arguments if we replaced these specific books with LGBT ones that are sexually appropriate. Why is that not an option? Why are you arguing to keep a book in these schools that instruct 14-17 year olds how to make their own porn?
It's staggering to me that you'd die on this hill. Rational parents now see two options: either the sexually explicit material remains, or all queer material is banned. They're not seeing a rational pushback against that second option, so they're going to go with that second option. The doubling down is in fear that all queer books will eventually be banned from schools. Well guess what: it's happening because you're doubling down. You started this argument with "its not happening" and now your argument is "its happening, but it's not that bad." You're actively pushing for a queer book ban, you're just going the long way to do it.
There are, I'm assuming, plenty of queer books without these explicit pictures and instructions? Why aren't those being championed instead?
I did in response to another commenter.
The books aren't pornographic in their whole, but they have pornographic material in them. The two that have gotten major publicity are:
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe. Where the described strap-on blowing scene is from. It also has explicit sexting scenes where a character describes how hot certain sexual acts would be. I have no problem with coming-of-age stories for queer people, and I have no problem with books with this kind of material being in public libraries. For high schools, you want to talk about/show queer people kissing? Cool. Want them to talk about having sex in general? Cool. But those explicit scenes should probably not be in school libraries. Keep them to general community libraries and let parents decide what's appropriate to read beyond what's school-appropriate.
Trans Bodies, Trans Selves by Laura Erickson Schroth. While again, I think a lot of good can come from seeing pictures of normal, naked bodies not in a state of arousal, the book goes beyond that in sections, discussing ways in which to search for trans porn, or to make trans porn youself.
And listen, I have no issues with porn. Most of us find it online when we're young anyway. But that doesnt mean it should be offered how to navigate it, or how to start doing it yourself in school, even in high schools. Most people, including most people in the LBGT+ communities agree that there's a line to draw here. Leave it up to individual parents to decide how to manage what their kids come into contact with.
These two books caused a firestorm, and when it was shown what had parents upset, instead of saying: "here are some alternatives that have the same themes with no explicit content" activists said: "fuck you, you're lying" or "fuck you, there's nothing wrong with showing this."
Such a dumb response, because it pushes rational people away who see/hear that response and think: "wtf, why are they denying what I'm seeing with my own eyes?" Or "of course there's something wrong with teenagers in high school reading text about how to make their own porn, these activists are crazy". It literally ensures there's going to be a bigger backlash and they'll start going overboard.
I don't like the source I have, by the way. It's incredibly politically biased and one sided, but it's the only site that lists the explicit parts. I also need to point out that I don't agree with everything that's listed in this writeup as being bad. I think talking about what goes into being a trans person is a good thing, and would 100% be on board with these books in high schools if the sexuality explicit stuff weren't in them. Source.
Like, there have to be queer books out there that are actually age-appropriate, right? Why aren't we pushing those?
it comes across as bigoted lies because nearly every time, even the most reasonable sounding arguments contain blatant misinformation at best and lies at worst
framing gender queer as porn because it includes one sex scene is just slightly less ridiculous than framing stephen king's 'it' as porn
its hard to take your comment as sincere when the most genuine and reasonable speech folks can muster still relies on distorting the truth
its also hard to take concerned citizens as genuinely concerned when their concern only ever seems to kick in when it lets them yell about the alphabet people
Okay, so what about the hooks and my post is misinformation or lies? Seeing examples of the exact problematic pages shows you its true and the information is correct.
I didn't say gender queer as a whole is porn, but there are sections in it that are pornographic in nature. To be clear: These scenes would still be an issue if it were a book about straight people.
It makes no sense not to just replace it with queer books and stories that don't contain this sexually explicit stuff.