Banned Books Week asks “What are they really afraid of here?”

Banned Books Week is already upon us, although for the last couple years it feels like every week is Banned Books Week.

With the growing intensity of challenges and bans on books ranging in subject from sexual education to American history and various other political agendas, the actions taken towards school and public libraries (even booksellers at some points!) are indicative of a severe panic strongly conservative groups, no strangers to this conflict at all.

Yet, they seem more determined than ever to restrict access to books dealing with race, accurate history and sexual identity. Beyond the political bias and the standard “moral” objections to this material, however, leads me to ask “What is it that they’re so afraid of? “

To me, the answer is empathy.

Empathy , that ability to connect with others and in particular, those whose life experiences you may never share in or truly understand, is terrifying to them. Their ultimate horror movie monster , in the style of Michael Myers, Jason and Freddy.

Just take a look at their number one target; Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel /memoir Gender Queer. 

Along with other stories such as All Boys Aren’t Blue and Flamer, this book has been repeatedly attacked for it’s open and honest discussion about discovering sexual identity, particularly as a young person.

Now, you would think that with all of the concerns about the mental health issues for teenagers of late, that a book like this would be ideal. Not only does the author talk about eir(the preferred pronouns of the writer are e/em/eir) growing up and coming to terms with being asexual and nonbinary but telling family and friends about this as well.

Not only would such a story be of great comfort to others dealing with those issues, it would also answer a few questions for those not in that exact situation who might just want to know what it’s all about. It could clear up a lot of misconceptions and promote positive, mature conversations between more than one social group.

Sadly, what ignorance fears just as much as knowledge is empathy; making an emotional connection is sometimes more than immediate than an intellectual one and possibly even stronger:

Also, novels that highlight more realistic takes on teens such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews are prime targets as well.

In the case of the latter, the offbeat friendship between the main characters, told with crude humor at times, is the type of coming of age story that would actually resonate with teenagers and yes, teens are rude,lewd and not always the best people at times.

That applies to our narrator Greg, who is not meant to be a shining example of maturity, even when it comes to best friend or a chronically ill peer.

It’s good for someone who might feel guilty about not always having the “correct” feelings about certain people and serious situations to realize that they’re not alone in such awkwardness and that you can become a better person over time. Experience can be a good teacher and even if you figured some of this life stuff out much sooner than others, it helps to understand why it takes some folks longer to catch up:

One book on the current top ten banned books list that stuck out to me was Sold by Patricia McCormick.

The novel is told from the point of view of Lakshmi, a young girl from Nepal who is to believe that she is being sent to India to work as a house maid, only to be enslaved at a brothel instead.

With the massive amount of attention paid to human trafficking from multiple platforms, you would think that a book like this from an award winning author meant to enlighten readers about such real world horrors would be praised, not scorned.

What I suspect is the real motivation for objections here, aside from the age appropriate sexual content, is that this book doesn’t feature the “ideal victim” that certain groups have in mind when talking about this subject.

Never mind the fact that such brutal stories are universally appalling regardless of locale; some prefer to put a false face over such ugly truths thar look more pleasing to them. Such a shame as fund raising by young people to help these girls has been inspired by this book:

Empathy, whether it’s for someone from another culture or country, seems to be very frightening to those that fear change in the way that our society works. Granted , change isn’t always pleasant but the main principles of our nation are to make everyone an equal player when it comes to freedom and change is a big necessary part of that.

The freedom to read and think freely is vital to that concept and instead of narrowing the vision of the next generation and the ones to come afterwards, let us embrace a wider world of knowledge and empathy to help bring our fractured democracy back together.

Sure, it won’t always be harmonious but a general agreement to do right by each other would go a long way towards making things better for all concerned. There are such good things to help people truly connect with one another and my favorite one is books. 

Hopefully, by the time Banned Books Week arrives next year, we’ll have turned the page on such an ugly chapter in our mutual history: