PAVEing a Blog

It’s been an ever present issue that’s become more apparent in the more recent years. A controversy that’s begun to plague libraries across the country: the banned books controversy. For those that don’t know, it’s a controversy that regards the issues of people, such as the government and parents, deciding that certain books should no longer be allowed to be read by the public. All over the world, including in America, there are books that are being banned due to their ‘offensive’ topics. These offensive topics can range from things such as LGBTQ+ representation, portrayal of dark historical events, violent depictions, portrayal of different groups, and various other ‘problems’.

Let’s be clear about something for a moment. Almost every single problem that’s been presented as an excuse to ban books is just something that goes against the ideologies of other people, not actual problems. Why should books with LGBTQ+ representation – such as Melissa, Lawn Boy, and All Boys Aren’t Blue – be banned from schools and other places aside from the obvious reason of blatant homophobia? There are books about the Holocaust, such as The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, which are being banned partly due to Holocaust deniers. Almost every banned book has little to do with real problems, and nearly everything to do with people’s own ideologies that they want to try and force onto the rest of the world.

However, aside from the broad claims against who it is that’s banning the books, a broader question should be asked: Why the books? In a society where movies are more prominent, more advertised, and more consumed, why is it that the books are being limited? Books can explain a topic for an audience to imagine, but movies show that topic. Movies are also rentable in libraries. They discuss the same topics as books (Love, Simon – Homosexuality, The Diary of Anne Frank – Holocaust) but are able to be shown to large groups in public theaters, in addition to being available on streaming services. A good argument for the difference between books and movies is one simple thing: control.

Teens can go to a library where they’re able to read books at the library. However, if they rent a movie, they’ll likely have to go back home if they want to be able to watch it. Books can be read anywhere, whereas movies can only be watched in certain places if you don’t have mobile streaming. If a teen is watching a DVD or something on a streaming service, they’re likely doing it at home, where the parents are able to easily monitor and control what’s on the TV. However, since books don’t have to be read at home, parents have little control over what’s being read. So, there’s only one clear option in their minds: control the libraries.

Parents are trying to gain control over what kinds of books their children are reading by controlling what’s in the libraries. In some areas, parents are trying to gain control. However, in other areas, parents already have control. Books that their generation grew up reading are suddenly being banned from libraries across the country. Classics like The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, Charlotte’s Web, The Catcher in the Rye, Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, and many others are being challenged, or banned, across America and other countries. After all, if it was all about their own preferences rather than a need to control, then they simply wouldn’t read the books that they don’t like.

Now, in all fairness, if parents were doing this to protect their children from controversial topics because they want to preserve their innocence, then that’s one thing. However, that’s only if the children are children. Teenagers are minors, but they’re not necessarily children. Teenagers have the capability to form their own thoughts and opinions on complex and controversial topics, and there’s a very good chance that they’re not full of the innocence that children have. However, it isn’t just the elementary and middle schools that are being affected by this. High schools and public libraries are also being affected by parents banning books that they think are unfit to read for their own personal reasons.

Of course, it isn’t all parents that are trying to do this. Many adults and parents I’ve talked to are also furious about their favorite childhood books suddenly being banned from libraries. But that’s the catch here. There’s only so much that a bunch of high school students can do. If we’re going to be able to fight this controlling power that other parents and adults are trying to gain, then we’re going to need the support of other parents and adults ourselves. Not only do minors have little legal power, since we don’t have the right to vote, but we’re also not taken as seriously by higher powers. How is this obvious? We’re apparently not even trusted enough to be able to pick the books that we read.

On a more emotional level, the teenage years are the years when we feel more vulnerable, in a way. During these years, we’re prone to believe that no one understands us, that we’re alone in the world, or that we’re weird or unnatural. These thoughts can come from, not only self-doubt or bullying, but it can also come from a heavily critical family. How can a gay person be expected to accept himself and be confident when he constantly hears a homophobic family talk about how sinful and unnatural it is? Many teenagers that deal with these, or similar, situations can take comfort in the books that they read. Books that star other teenagers or regular people that are just like the reader. Books that show teenagers that they’re not unnatural or completely different just for being themselves. These types of books are what help give many teenagers confidence in a dark time while they’re developing and feeling alone. And it’s these very same books that are being threatened to be banned from high school libraries, completely out of reach for the teenagers that might’ve been able to use that book as a way to feel good about themselves in a world that tries to put them down.

There is no real literature that should ever be banned from the hands of those who could take an interest in it. Books are meant to be read, not banned by people who don’t like the messages that it portrays or the characters that it deals with. Characters in books are, more often than not, people who anybody can relate to. If there’s a person in a book, there’s a high chance that there’s someone in the world just like them. There could be a boy out in the world desperately wanting to know that he’s not alone, but he’ll never find the character that he can relate to because the character, as well as the books he’s in, was deemed unfit to be read, and consequently banned. Just because books handling sensitive topics get banned doesn’t mean that those sensitive topics are eliminated from the real world. It just means that someone who needed to learn about that sensitive topic has one less source to go to.

So, if you want to be part of the solution to stop this banned books crisis, try your hardest to take action. You do something as big as protest to government officials about the issue, to something as small as spreading this article to other people, allowing them to get some information, and a whole point of view, on the topic. Any action you do for this cause can help. If you don’t feel you have the motivation or power to be able to make a change, perhaps the one person that you share this article with does have the motivation and power to make a difference. Books deserve to be read. Authors deserve to be recognized. Readers deserve to be happy. One simple action can lead to the difference between someone not finding the book they need in a desperate time, and someone picking a book off the shelf that becomes their new favorite. It’s all up to you.