Bitchery Reader Rbelle sent me the following link: seems the presence of the word “scrotum” in this year’s Newberry winner, The Higher Power of Lucky, has caused librarians to reach for the hartshorn and ban the book from their libraries.
Yes. Scrotum. We’re only a few days past slamming our heads on the desks over “The Hoohah Monologues,” and now word comes that once again we must connect our craniums to the desk surface with considerable force. “Scrotum” is cause for book banning.
Seems the main character overhears the word through a hole in the fence when another character details where a rattlesnake bit his dog.
This is my particular favorite quote, and by “favorite” I mean it makes me want to explode with rage in every possible direction:
Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango Colorado, had this to say about The Higher Power of Lucky”: “This book included what I call a Howard Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn’t have the children in mind.”
Yes. Howard Stern frequently would make use of the word “scrotum.” The hell he would. He, Opie, Anthony, or any other shock jock would use “balls,” “junk,” or “nutsack,” but “scrotum?”
I hate to break it to Ms. Nilsson, but that’s the anatomically correct word to describe that part of the human anatomy. It’s not like the book contains the words “spunk factory” or “bag of fuck pucks.”
I have to put my head between my knees now, lest I pass out from hyperventilating rage at the yet-again-so-dismaying fear we have of anything remotely sexual. We can’t even use the proper words for reproductive organs. Perhaps I can’t even say “head” and “knees.” I have to put my desk-slamming-tension-relieving-rotund-appendage betwixt my flexible joints which enable me to walk.
I think the word “scumbag” has been used to mean rotten person for so long that censors have forgotten what the true meaning is. And THESE are the people who decide what we can and can’t see on TV???? Kind of scary, when you think about it…
First, I agree with the “Not all librarians are twats” comment. Mine cheerfully let me read anything I wanted.
Idiots and breastfeeding: I was in the back of a dark booth, invisible from most of the room, with 98% of my boob covered by a nursing bra and the poor baby practically smothered with a burp towel, and some bitch still commented to her SO at the next table that it ‘turned her stomach’ and I should ‘go to the bathroom to do that.’
Like I was urinating or vomiting in the booth instead of giving my child the nourishment intended by nature. I chose not to move. She settled down after several people glared at her, including my husband.
I posted in a similar convo on a Yahoo list recently. Basically, kids will hear and read all sorts of words, good, bad, and indifferent. My seven-year-old knows a lot of them but doesn’t use them, because I took the time to teach her what was and was not appropriate for her to use. She knows boys and girls are different, and where babies come from, though I did fudge some of the details.
IMO, Ignorance is the word people should worry about. Kids WILL find out what something is or means—the difference being whether it’s through a sane conversation with their parents or the nasty kid in gym class who doesn’t shower. I could ask my mother ANYTHING when I was a kid.
Shielding kids won’t help protect them, but knowledge will. If they really want to help kids, they’ll educate them instead.
IMO, Ignorance is the word people should worry about.
And that sums it up right there. Well stated, Mistress Stef.
If you want to talk about eyebrow-raising moments in kids lit I’ve got a corker from Aussie author John Marsden. From the Ellie Chronicles, which is a bestselling series about a group of teens who fight in a rebellion when Australia is invaded. I’ll set the scene… Ellie’s mourning her parents who were killed by enemy soldiers, and she having a moment of tender rememberance:
“That little black dress my mother wore to the opening of the grandstand, my father’s pencil stub writing down the golf scores, his laugh, her fine fingers, his his grunts when he was absorbed in a job, her big brown nipples that she didn’t like but I loved, his long soft penis and its curious head, her pubic hair so soft and mysterious, his pubic hair so thick and curly”… ew, ICK! It’s not the language that is so off, but, honestly, what 16 year old reminisces about her parents, er, special bits? So obviously added to cause controversy!