Earlier this year I had the pleasure of reading Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale. Set in a dystopian future, the American government was overthrown by a religious coup called Gilead and turned America into a totalitarian patriarchal theocracy. In this world, women who led a “sinful” life were captured and given to infertile wealthy couples and forced to bear their children. This was all in the name of increasing the birth rate that had fallen into the negatives. In the setting of The Handmaid’s Tale, to have a child was to have a “privilege”.
This book was a beautiful and thought provoking criticism of America’s control on reproductive rights and an insightful look into what could be, an albeit dramatized, future for the United States.
And as of 2022, the book has been banned in school libraries in the states of Oregon, Florida and Texas, under the pretenses of having vulgar language and “sexual overtones”. This banning of books has taken other classics like Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, 1984 and To Kill a Mockingbird.
This new wave of book bannings began in early 2021, with a notable amount of books either being challenged, censored or banned from school libraries. It is clear from the content of the books that are being banned that the board of education is trying to censor certain subjects. This is clear as most that have been challenged or banned involve stories surrounded in sexuality, queerness, violence and other taboo topics. It has been seen that these books have been deemed inappropriate for their content despite most of these telling beautiful criticism and views that are often warnings for the audience. Great examples of these types of censorship are books such as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and The Giver, dystopian books criticizing certain aspects of our society that have been banned for their depictions of their violent communities. Banned and challenged for their use of violence and death, it seems many of the themes of these books have passed over people’s heads.
Most of these book bannings are taking place in states like Florida and Texas, where other bills are being passed that are making queerness and women’s reproductive rights increasingly harder. Just earlier this year, Florida’s amendment to protect abortion rights fell short, which means the window to have an abortion fell even shorter. This paired with Texas’s bill that allowed police officers to arrest at the border, are creating hostile environments for minority groups to exist and live a comfortable life. It is made abundantly clear that these book bannings are further pushing narratives in these states that certain ways of living, like immigration and queerness, are inappropriate and “incorrect” ways of living.
The banning of books is just another way for these states to censor these topics and further push the guise that what they are doing is correct. Especially with the context that many children don’t have access or the resources to source books in libraries or buy themselves. Therefore, much of their exposure to books is related to school libraries and school books. Thus the board of education is banning books that could potentially help a child learn more about their identity and of their society. On a better not is that Californias hasn’t banned many books though it does not mean they are exempt as they have a few books they have banned from school libraries. In certain parts of Californias, books such as Doll’s House, I Know Why Caged Birds Sing and A Lesson In Dying have been banned.
Thankfully, there are many organizations that are bringing awareness and attempting to reverse and challenge these decisions. Such as Banned Books Week are bringing awareness to these issues and holding meetings. Their website has a lot of important information such as what books have been recently banned and when are the last days to read these books. Another great resource is the American Library Association, this organization has a list of all the books banned and where they are being banned
All of these organizations and groups are working incredibly hard to bring awareness to this issue that many seem to have forgotten about. Banning books is not something of the past, but is still a relevant tool used by many people to censor the media we consume.
