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As the 1st of October brings Banned Books Week, starting with what exactly a modern book ban to set the stage would be helpful!
Book banning is a form of censorship. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines it as,
“the practice of prohibiting or restricting the reading of certain books by the general public or by members of a local community or religious group. Books can be banned by means of their removal from publicly accessible locations (e.g, libraries), by their destruction (including the burning of printed books), or by making their authorship or distribution a punishable act.”
The current book bans occurring specifically in the United States come due to a want to censor what people read. Censoring is “the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are “offensive” and usually “happens whenever some people succeed in imposing their personal political or moral values on others.”
School book bans are very similar. PEN America defines those as,
“any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by lawmakers or other governmental officials, that leads to a previously accessible book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.”
Opponents of book bans, like this blog and many other incredible institutions out there like PEN America and United Against Book Bans, argue that the ability to access these books is protected under our First Amendment right.
It should also be highlighted that book bans are NOT the same thing as determining if a book is age appropriate. Book bans remove access to everyone in a determined group/community. Educators choosing to not recommend a book, or read a book, due to some themes for a class due to the age of the class is not a book ban, as those students can still choose to access the book.
Here at MyLibraryCardWoreOut, I fully believe in reading books that are age appropriate. A young teen should not be reading a smut book at all. Parents can make those specific choices for their child due to their individual and personal maturity. The reason for this is while the parent may not want a child to read something, the child can still access the book if they so choose. This is why clearly explaining why you ban a book is important, and I’ll delve into this more later in the week!
But a blanket book ban removing access to books is not acceptable. What is offensive to one person and one family is not offensive to another and removing someone’s ability to access books is seen as an infringement on our First Amendment right.
