Is book banning a valid means of protecting mental health?

Caroline Kunz

Dr. Ellis

EN 499

18 March 2024

Banning Books vs. Protecting Mental Health

    This week's readings were incredibly beneficial in expanding my knowledge on the history of book banning, and the detriments that it continues to have on readers of all ages - especially those that are young. First, Mullally's piece provided jarring context to the issue of book banning, reminding us that the act of banning a book is a direct violation of our first amendment rights that forbid the censorship of literature. This notion makes more troubling the fact that parents, libraries, and schools continue to report books to be banned in order to fulfill their "moral obligation" to "protect the children in our schools from this moral danger as surely as from physical and medical dangers" (Mullally 2). What I cannot seem to understand is how these books can possibly be looked upon as "dangerous," when they contain real-life historical events, real life identities, and real life issues. And, how can exposure to these aspects of everyday life harm children? At the end of the day, these texts are there to educate, represent, and uplift young readers.

    After gaining more context on the issue with Mullally's piece, I found Ringel's piece to be powerful in demonstrating the personal, real-world impacts of book banning and its ability to marginalize children. An overarching question that our class has discussed several times is, why do parents ban books in the first place? Ringel notes that often, parents ban books that "may be 'emotionally inappropriate' for children" (Ringel 4). She brings up an interesting point that "adults want to minimize children's anxiety,  and schools are often under intense social and financial pressure to maintain established standards" (4). Thus, the question poses itself: is protecting childrens' mental health a valid reason for banning a book? In my opinion, banning books has the complete opposite effect. In my own experience as a young student and reader, being able to see myself represented and mirrored by characters in books made me feel incredibly happy and valued. Further, in reading of issues of racism, sexism, and homophobia in books, that might not apply to me personally, never once did I feel my mental health or wellbeing threatened - instead, I felt a greater sense of empathy and compassion, and a strong urge to stand against these issue in my own school community. In taking representation for all students away by banning books that we deem "inappropriate," we inhibit all readers from experiencing this joy. Moreover, in the words of Ringel, "when we say 'this book is inappropriate,' we're telling those children, 'your situation...your family...your life is inappropriate" (Ringel 5). In other words, when a book is banned, the students who may have been able to see themselves represented in it are made to feel ashamed of their race, gender, sexuality, ability, ethnicity, etc. This is incredibly damaging to students' self esteem and mental health. Thus, parents, schools, librarians, and teachers should reconsider their reasoning when claiming that banning a book will protect the mental health and wellbeing of all children.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Fine Line Between Relatable and Condescending

Image
     I am just going to come right out and say it: these first few chapters of  Stamped … I hated them. Author Jason Reynolds relies heavily on the use of slang and comedy to, I would assume, ease the weight of the information being discussed, and create a more relatable connection between himself and readers. I mean, comparing the name Gomez Eanes de Zurara to a cheerleading chant (Reyonds 4)? Really? I find that many adults believe using slang or more causal, comedic language will better resonate with younger generations. However, as a member of one of these younger generations, I can confidently say that being addressed in this way can oftentimes come off as condescending, as though the author is talking down to readers. I recognize that those with less exposure to conversations about race may appreciate Reynold’s approach, sort of easing into it, if you will. And that for some, comedy is the best approach to alleviate the discomfort that comes with learning and t...
Read more

Future Boobs, or The Dichotomy Of Childhood in Gender Queer

          Children are, on a very basic level, genderless at birth. They’re not sexless, but it can more or less ignored for the most part for the first few years of their life, save for in medical contexts. If you wrap a baby girl in a blue blanket, you’ll fool just about anyone into cooing, “What a handsome baby boy!”. Kids are mostly amorphous human beings until about age 9. I’m not just using this language to be subversive, I honestly dare you to take every toddler you can find, put them in identical dresses, and guess their sexes. It’s not impossible, but it’s hard. They’re all flat-chested and chubby-faced, and their hair is in different stages of still-learning-how-to-grow-out-evenly. I’m being vaguely inflammatory here, but my point is that Kobabe captures that seemingly ambivalent nature of childhood perfectly in the early pages of Gender Queer , detailing eir friendship with eir neighbor’s son, Galen.  The moment I’m talking about only take...
Read more

Gender Queer: Thoughts

The second half of  Gender Queer: A Memoir  by Maia Kobabe offers a lot of insightful, and thoughtful aspects of navigating a cis-gendered world. In the later chapters we see the narrator and main protagonist of the story Maia become emersed in the possibilities of the world after living a rather simple, sheltered, and traditional life.    An aspect that I appreciate about the novel is the idea of role models throughout the story. Maia highlights the influence of David Bowie’s music, Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir, and writings of Oscar Wilde. It is nice to be able to put names to thoughts and feelings; these people who were simply being themselves let other curious minds know that they are not alone with certain feelings. It is a way to easily develop upon certain ideas that were already forming. Now Maia has the opportunity to be a role model for students and expose them to a society where gender terms do not have to define your identity.    Another im...
Read more