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Book ban attempts reach “unparalleled” 20-year high in 2022

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Re: Book ban attempts reach “unparalleled” 20-year high in 2022

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think books talking about a kid having gay parents are sexually suggestive, the problem is with you, not the books.

Are you saying there aren’t any age-inappropriate, sexually explicit books in school? Because what I’m seeing on social media is parents at school board meetings reading NC-17 level books that are in their elementary school kids classrooms. Is that not a thing? I mean, I only see it on social media, so it could me disinformation? Is it disinformation?

> reading NC-17 level books that are in their elementary school kids classrooms

Can you be specific?

Re: Book ban attempts reach “unparalleled” 20-year high in 2022

#42

The idea that "A kid at school should not be aware of anything their parents don't want them to be aware of" is mind numbingly stupid. How many gay kids have grown up under homophobic parents? How many little girls are told to be subservient to men and know their place? How many kids live in a household that consistently talks about "those thugs" and other clear racism? These kids all exist and it is stupid to think…

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Re: Book ban attempts reach “unparalleled” 20-year high in 2022

#43
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course. Except the books being removed from school libraries are more like "Gender Queer", which includes a page showing two minors giving a blowjob and doesn't cover anything. Why do you think minors need hardcore porn in the libraries so badly?

Any reasonable person can agree with literal porn being banned. What percentage, exactly, is porn out of all the books being banned? The thing is that LGBT+ content tends to be conflated with sexual content. We both know that the vast majority of these books aren't banned because they're obscene. They're being banned because people don't want any mention of LGBT+ people or topics, with flimsy excuses.

> We both know that the vast majority of these books aren't banned because people don't want any mention of LGBT+ people or topics. They're being banned because they contain obscene sexually explicit material in them.

Seems just as reasonable... So no, not clear at all.

Re: Book ban attempts reach “unparalleled” 20-year high in 2022

#44
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

restricting children's access to sexually suggestive books in tax payer funded schools seems appropriate. the media/press is trying to malign one side into being against free speech and pro-censorship, which is so ironic ... more culture war BS all around

Is there evidence sexually suggestive material has a negative effect on kids? Which specific books did you have in mind anyway?

Isn't there a lot of literature about how kids exposed to sexually explicit material go on to do risky sexual behavior as teens and do them earlier? Also about abusers literally grooming kids for sex by showing them porn? Pretty sure all this was standard discourse at least since the early 2000s.

Re: Book ban attempts reach “unparalleled” 20-year high in 2022

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there evidence sexually suggestive material has a negative effect on kids? Which specific books did you have in mind anyway?

Do you really want to be the person playing devils advocate with showing porn to children?

He asks a good question. Back before the internet it was pretty normal for some kid now and then to manage to swipe one of his dad’s issues of Playboy or Penthouse and share it with the other kids in their neighborhood.

So we have plenty of experience that says seeing the occasional sexually explicit photo or drawing doesn’t harm kids.

Re: Book ban attempts reach “unparalleled” 20-year high in 2022

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think books talking about a kid having gay parents are sexually suggestive, the problem is with you, not the books.

Of course. Except the books being removed from school libraries are more like "Gender Queer", which includes a page showing two minors giving a blowjob and doesn't cover anything. Why do you think minors need hardcore porn in the libraries so badly?

The fundamental dishonesty of these book bans is conflating books with sexual content with "hardcore pornography".

These bans are happening in high school. Be honest with yourself and admit what you already know: High schoolers are horny. Restricting them from books that discuss sexuality in a realistic way, combined with "abstinence only" sex education still common in these places, makes it more likely that their first exposure with sexual media is actual hardcore pornography, and I don't feel like I need to explain to you why that's bad.

Re: Book ban attempts reach “unparalleled” 20-year high in 2022

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course. Except the books being removed from school libraries are more like "Gender Queer", which includes a page showing two minors giving a blowjob and doesn't cover anything. Why do you think minors need hardcore porn in the libraries so badly?

The fundamental dishonesty of these book bans is conflating books with sexual content with "hardcore pornography". These bans are happening in high school. Be honest with yourself and admit what you already know: High schoolers are horny. Restricting them from books that discuss sexuality in a realistic way, combined with "abstinence only" sex education still common in these places, makes it more likely that their fi…

What’s your limiting principle here? Should schools also carry old Playboy magazines? They’re less sexually explicit than drawings of two underage kids blowing each other. Are the straight kids not horny? Should there also be straight porn in schools?

You can’t just drop sexually explicit images in a book then cry afoul when parents and taxpayers don’t want it in their public schools. They didn’t allow hustler and playboy and they’re trying to not allow this. They have a pretty consistent standard unlike the groups that advocate for such material to be made available to kids and teens.

Re: Book ban attempts reach “unparalleled” 20-year high in 2022

#48
The last time I checked, this pearl-clutching over "book bans" was about books being dropped from library shelves or school reading lists, not from the books actually being prohibited for purchase or reading.

Come on, folks, censorship is when you use coercive power to completely prevent access to a resource, not when you curate a list and it doesn't happen to make the cut.

Re: Book ban attempts reach “unparalleled” 20-year high in 2022

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying there aren’t any age-inappropriate, sexually explicit books in school? Because what I’m seeing on social media is parents at school board meetings reading NC-17 level books that are in their elementary school kids classrooms. Is that not a thing? I mean, I only see it on social media, so it could me disinformation? Is it disinformation?

> reading NC-17 level books that are in their elementary school kids classrooms Can you be specific?

> > reading NC-17 level books that are in their elementary school kids classrooms

> Can you be specific?

Here's an example.

https://nypost.com/2023/02/28/knox-zajac-reads-aloud-from-po...

Re: Book ban attempts reach “unparalleled” 20-year high in 2022

#50
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there evidence sexually suggestive material has a negative effect on kids? Which specific books did you have in mind anyway?

Isn't there a lot of literature about how kids exposed to sexually explicit material go on to do risky sexual behavior as teens and do them earlier? Also about abusers literally grooming kids for sex by showing them porn? Pretty sure all this was standard discourse at least since the early 2000s.

I didn't ask about sexually explicit material though - "explicit" and "suggestive" are quite different. My expectation is that most kids (below the age of 12 or so) wouldn't even recognise a lot of sexually suggestive language for what it was anyway.
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