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I was admittedly floored (and outraged) by this story out of New Jersey where a student purchased a "tribute" page in a yearbook (to the tune of $150)--only to have his page blacked out with markers by the administration because one of his photos (pictured) was of him kissing his boyfriend.
At first, the superintendent tried to argue it wasn't a "gay" issue at all, that the photo was too "illicit." But then it was pointed out that (a) uh, the photo isn't particularly illicit, and (b) a number of heterosexual students had included photos of themselves kissing, and those photos hadn't been blacked out.
"I don't understand," the student said. "There is no rule about no gay pictures, no guys kissing. Guys and girls kissing made it in."
But here's the real rule, which is never stated outright: gay kids, and gay content, are treated as something outrageous, something "controversial," with a completely different set of rules than those applied to heterosexual kids, and heterosexual content. "There's no rule against same-sex kissing in yearbooks? Well, there should be!" The administrators were clearly worried about the reaction to the same-sex kiss, so they preemptively censored--yes, censored--the school yearbook. Really, can there be a better example of censorship than this?
For the record, I've never argued that libraries and schools can't have standards and policies--that they can't keep certain books out of the library, for instance. I simply argue that a library or school's standards and policies have to be "reasonable" and based on reason (not prejudice), they have to be open and clearly stated, and they have to be fairly applied.
In the case of this censored yearbook, I can't imagine a more inconsistent, unfair policy.
I've long argued on this blog that this kind of inconsistency and unfairness, this pandering to potential outrage, also applies to gay teen books and gay content in teen books. As a gay author, I experience it all the time when I'm informally invited to speak at a school--only to be told that, after confering with administrators, they've decided that, no, maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea if I came after all. Likewise, I hear, "Oh, we'd love to have your book in our library, but I'm afraid it just wouldn't go over well with parents."
I hope I don't sound like I'm playing the victim card (and no, I don't need the speaking gigs--I'm plenty busy as it is!). But it bothers me because I see this as a "censorship" of a sort--an unreasonable, systematic, and preemptive elimination of a certain topic from the curriculum. And it bothers me more that more people don't see it as such. That's why I think stories like the above one out of New Jersey are so important. They clarify things, what's really going on.
Incidentally, I think that kid should sue the pants off em!
I also think that superintendent inadvertantly taught that school and those kids a lesson about free speech and freedom of expresion that those kids will never forget.
It's all cool,
Brent Hartinger
My Books:
* Dreamquest
* Split Screen: Attack of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies/Bride of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies
* Grand & Humble
* The Order of the Poison Oak
* The Last Chance Texaco
* Geography Club Explore "Brent's Brain"
See my anti-censorship blog, "AS IF! News"
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 So I have this new book out called Dreamquest, a fantasy that's the story of a girl plagued by nightmares, who one night wakes up in a "dream studio" in "Slumberia," the place inside her own head where they film her dreams.
I'm really pleased with the reaction to the book so far: ten or so great reviews, and one bad one (in a minor publication, by a critic who completely missed the point, IMHO!).
Anyway, something keeps coming up again and again in these reviews, which is that the book is "dark" and "edgy," for "sophisticated readers." I keep reading that and thinking, "No! It's not dark and edgy! It's a middle grade book, not like my young adult stuff. It's just a nice little fantasy."
But then I think about these critics' point, about how there are some somewhat disturbing nightmares at the beginning of the book (which, obviously, set the story in motion). And there's some unsettling imagery in the land of Slumberia itself (including a showdown with the folks behind the nightmares--creatures that I am admittedly pretty proud of; I totally hope they make a movie out of this book, if only because I can wait to see how these folks look on film!).
The point is, while I hope the book is funny and heartwarming and exciting and all the other things I intended it to be, I have to admit it's also kinda, well, dark and edgy.
But again, this isn't the way it seemed to me at all. At least not while I was writing it, editing it, and thinking about it in the year before it got released. While we were in copy-editing, my editor compared it to Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and I thought to myself, "What? No! That's a scary book! My book isn't like that at all. My book is a comedy!"
It turns out, she was right, and I was wrong. I guess I just have something of an "edgy" sensibility.
For the record, we authors spend a lot of time bitching about how publishers did this or that thing "wrong" with the release of our books (thereby completely avoiding all blame, at least in our own minds, if the book turns out to not sell as well as everyone hoped!).
But I guess we authors aren't quite as objective as we think. In short, maybe we're even crappy judges of our own work. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think we are. We're too close to it. We can't see the big picture.
The point is, I like the book, a lot of other people do too. But I guess it's somewhat dark and edgy. That's not a bad thing (I loved Coraline, after all). But it is what it is.
It's all cool,
Brent Hartinger
My Books:
* Dreamquest
* Split Screen: Attack of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies/Bride of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies
* Grand & Humble
* The Order of the Poison Oak
* The Last Chance Texaco
* Geography Club Explore "Brent's Brain"
See my anti-censorship blog, "AS IF! News" |
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