How bat-sh*t insane can the fervor over “WOKE” get? Well, in the state of Alabama even your last name (for some it’s a first name too – one such person, a guy who was a pro-golfer won the Master’s even!) can get your work banned! After a trying couple of days I started checking out news this morning and came across this appalling story of out of control zealotry policing libraries in the quest by some to purge libraries of ALL things “WOKE.”
Imagine if you will having had a successful career as a children’s book author. Your work has been widely acclaimed, published in a dozen languages and you’ve won lots of awards. Your work includes several series including a pair of them about siblings – one from the perspective of a little girl named Stella and the other from her little brother named Sam. The Stella series which ran from 1999 to the last book about Stella and Sam building a doghouse was published in 2013. including one about the adventures of a little girl named Stella and her brother.
Now, imagine some ten years later some “OMFG we’ve got to protect the CHILDREN! person(s) hearing about a book titled Read Me A Story, Stella and having it added to a list of books to be banned by your local library. Yep, that’s the title. Does the book delve into topics that might, only might mind you raise “content” questions about whether topics like human sexuality or race relations or religion are “age appropriate?” Nope, as I’ve stated it’s about a pair of siblings building a dog house. So by now you’re wondering why the hell this book wound up on a “we’ve got to BAN these books from the library” list in the first place.
The author’s name is Mary-Louise GAY.
When you hear RWNJs say the whole DeSantis “anti-WOKE” stuff isn’t dangerous, or that it’s unfair to call that awful law he rammed through in FL “Don’t Say GAY” I’d suggest THIS is exactly the kind nonsensical, and yes dangerous crap it leads to. A person’s name, a pretty normal word that’s been around for forever and used in all manner of ways that have nothing to so with sexual orientation can have people calling for you, or your work at least to be banned! “For the sake of the children” of course, not because some zealot sees the boogeyman everywhere they turn including in their effed up dreams at night.
That friends is how a library’s Director winds up adding a book to a list of titles that have to be “reviewed” to “protect the children”:
“Read Me a Story, Stella,” a children’s picture book by Canadian author Marie-Louise Gay, was added to a list of books flagged for potential removal from the children’s section of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library because of “sexually explicit” content.
The problem as I’ve noted is that the illustrated book doesn’t deal with things like human sexuality. It’s one of set of books about brother and sister siblings doing normal kid stuff. Alas, the “we’ve got to protect the children” mentality has gotten parked deep in some places, and in an Alabama community a list of 233 “suspect” books was created to protect “Alabama values”, or something… In this case the content of the book sure as hell wasn’t a problem, which the person(s) objecting to it (or other books) could have learned easily enough by, you know reading it. Some adults are I guess so fearful they don’t want to sear their eyes and/or consciousness with “radical” ideas and concepts. ANY mere hint of “WOKE” has to be consigned to oblivion, no matter the reason. That’s how little it takes in some places these days:
But the book, which is about a pair of siblings reading together and building a dog house, should not have been on the list and was only added because of the keyword “gay,” Cindy Hewitt, the library’s executive director told AL.com on Sunday.
Hewitt went on to say:
“We wanted to be proactive and allow our library staff to look at our collection and make decisions about moving material to an older age group and not have someone from outside dictating that for us,” Hewitt said.
Oops. Seems there was a backlash down there and the whole venture was dropped. So in the end there’s some good news. At least in this one instance but you and I both know there are places where no “review” would even take place, or even be announced. That this or other books would simply disappear from the shelves. Something not just bad or awful is going on – and it’s dangerous. Gay’s publicist at Groundwood Books says that coming from a public library this kind of thing sends a “hateful message”:
“This proves, as always, that censorship is never about limiting access to this book or that one. It is about sending the message to children that certain ideas — or even certain people — are not worthy of discussion or acknowledgment or consideration,” Brassard told the news outlet.
She’s right. People everywhere need to be on the lookout for this kind of anti-WOKE activity. In libraries, on school boards and other places in your community. The zealots are out there and while some make a big show about what they are doing on your (and “the children’s) behalf some of them operate in stealth mode. Or just bumble and stumble along. Or worse simply quietly cave in to pressure.
With all the huge news going on things like this get missed all too easily.
Sounds like the RWNJ founder of the “Catholic League” who petitioned to have Louis CK’s show removed, based on something he claimed was in an episode, but never was. In an interview, Louie asked him about it and he admitted that he had never even watched the episode he had been raving about.
There is an actual reason for disliking the comedian: sexual.harassment and exposing himself to nonconsenting women and masturbating I. front of them as #MeToo showed. But I doubt t Bill.Donahue the RWNJ would care about that. He would likely blame the female victims for daring to try to break into the traditionally male world of stand-up comedy.
RWNJs don’t (or can’t!) read! After all, if they read they could actually (GASP!) learn something! They don’t want to learn, because they might learn something that conflicts with their MAGA cult’s beliefs. They can’t accept that they are wrong about everything!
Ain’t no mountain high enough by Marvin GAYE
There is a book called Stella brings the family which is about a girl who has two dads who come to school for parent’s night. Obviously what they did based on the name of the author was ridiculous, but at the same time we should recognize that other equally important books like Stella brings the family are being taken off shelves.
Actually, Marvin’s surname at birth was GAY but he added the “e.” There was a claim made in a biography that it was to quiet talk about his sexuality (even though that particular sense of “gay” didn’t really come into fashion until the end of the 60s) but he’d had a troubling relationship with his father and he may have changed it to put some distance (bear in mind, Marvin was also his father’s name as well).