Controversial Library Book Raises Concern

From the article The Nampa Public Library is taking heat about certain books they have available for check out. Tonight a group of concerned citizens is taking their message to the city council. They want eight books pulled off the shelves. Their argument is that each of these books have graphic sexual material, but one book in particular, “The Joy of Gay Sex” crosses the line. Story continued here.

May 16, 2006 by Uncategorized 3

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3 Responses

  1. GregS* says:
    May 17, 2006 at 12:05 am

    oboy
    I was actually going to defend it (especially if they have the straight version) but if this is true:

    “One of the chapters is titled daddy-son sexual fantasies about two people having sex together and pretending they are father and son,” said Jackson.

    But the book doesn’t stop there. An entire chapter is dedicated to teenagers..

    “To put literature in the hands of teenagers that encourages them to go online and hookup online for gay sex with strangers is totally inexcusable,” said Fischer.

    …then I’m considerably less inclined.

    Reply
  2. Fang-Face says:
    May 17, 2006 at 4:26 pm

    Re:oboy
    One of the fraudulent charges reactionaries lay against books on sexuality is that it encourages people to have sex. One of the most precious superstitions of the conservatives is that there is a vast homosexual conspiracy with a homosexual agenda.

    It’s all bullshit.

    As the sense of social and economic precariousness has escalated in the last two decades, a panic about children’s sexuality has mounted with it. The currency of anxiety in America is frequently the sexual; sex is viewed as both the sine qua non of personal fulfillment and the experience with the potential for wreaking the greatest personal and societal devastation. And popular sexual fears cluster around the most vulnerable: women and children.

    The political articulation of these fears in the late twentieth century came from two disparate sources. On one side were feminists, whose movement exposed widespread rape and domestic sexual violence against women and children and initiated a new body of law that would punish the perpetrator and cease to blame the victim. From the other side, the religious Right brought to sexual politics the believe that women and children need special protection because they are “naturally” averse to sex
    of any kind.
    –Judith Levine, Harmful to Minors, introduction, pg xxiii

    Reply
  3. birdman says:
    May 17, 2006 at 7:49 pm

    Joy of Gay Sex
    I Don’t agree with everything in that book either but as a librarian I wouldn’t take Mein Kampf off the shelf because it was written by a madman. The Joy books were written in a decade that was much different than ours today. Once you say that a line is drawn then it is censorship. Then again, if it is destroyed or not returned I certainly would consider not reordering it for the collection. I just dont believe in taking books off the shelves. Even when the arguements are good it opens doors to more bookremovers. I wonder if these same people would agree to library programs for gay teens, using space for safe envirnment meetings for gay youth, etc. If not, then there are more issues at hand than the particular content of this one book.

    Reply

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