What is censorship? The American Library Association (ALA) defines censorship as a “change in the access status of material, based on the content of the work and made by a governing authority or its representatives. Such changes include exclusion, restriction, removal, or age/grade level changes” (ALA, 2016, para. 2). For the purpose of this activity I will be focusing on banned books in the Young Adult (YA) genre.
I recently listened to a number of podcasts on the topics of banned YA books. I then further read online news articles which discussed people trying to ban books such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower (referred to as Perks henceforth) by Stephen Chbosky from schools and libraries. These news articles and podcasts have been linked in the appendix. Perks came in at (an admirable) number 13 on ALA’s Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books 2010-2019 (ALA, 2020). For those who have not read this beautiful, but heartbreaking; coming of age; YA novel, Perks is centred around a boy named Charlie navigating adolescence (Chbosky, 1999). Charlie is a wallflower, realising he cannot always experience life from the sidelines (Chbosky, 1999). The novel progresses through a number of letters written by Charlie to an unnamed friend which allow you to experience Charlie’s thoughts and feelings over time.
This book has been challenged and banned for its candid depictions of masturbation, sex, drugs, and suicide (Chamberlain, 2010). While these are reasons given, it seems like an underlying reason for censorship is fear. Mintah (2018) describes this genre as speaking to the interests and experiences of adolescents, more so, they answer questions adults cannot or do not want to, and they often contain issues often considered taboo. Regarding Perks, these would further include, sexual assault, abortion, and homosexuality (Chbosky, 1999).
This idea is supported by Beemer-Macdonald (2014, p.22) who states that the justification for censorship has changed from concern and wanting to protect juveniles from potential trauma and disturbance to preventing them from learning, and adopting, what adults consider to be objectionable ideas and behaviour, as portrayed in novels. I believe YA novels such as Perks have the potential to help adolescents engage with issues that affect their lives and comprehending how a particular character (such as Charlie) deals with, for example, trauma is beneficial. Censorship and book banning are therefore detrimental to the information seeking behaviours of young adults.
How will book banning effect my professional practice in the future? Most library guidelines on the topic of censorship are very clear and advise against censorship. In Australia, the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) (Duthie, 2010, p.87) professional code states that “all professional librarians must avoid censorship at all times; they should be ‘committed to intellectual freedom and the free flow of ideas and information. The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) encourages the same, stating that “‘IFLA calls upon libraries and library staff to adhere to the principles of intellectual freedom, uninhibited access to information and freedom of expression and to recognise the privacy of the library user” (Duthie, 2010, p.87).
Regarding my professional practice, I accept that people are allowed to have objections to what they believe may be questionable resources, however, young adults have the right to access this information. I further learned about the Library Act 1939, which explains the role of public libraries in providing unbiased, free, and equitable information access the community which can be of importance to future professional practice.
References
American Library Association. (2020). Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books: 2010–2019. ALA. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade2019
Beemer-MacDonald, M. (2014). Annie off my mind: heterosexist censorship of adolescent literature in intermediate/senior language arts curricula Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1636553794). https://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/dissertations-theses/annie-i-off-my-mind-heterosexist-censorship/docview/1636553794/se-2?accountid=10344
Chamberlain, K. (2010, October 1). Spotlight on Censorship – The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Intellectual Freedom Blog. https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=1525
Chbosky, S. (1999). The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Sydney, Australia: Simon & Schuster
Duthie, F. (2010). Libraries and the Ethics of Censorship. The Australian Library Journal, 59(3), 85–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049670.2010.10735994
Appendix
Podcasts
The Audissey (Producer). (2020, September). S3E3 – Banned books week 2020 [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from
https://open.spotify.com/episode/32lEIViUTI094YAFgl6jI8?si=9e9c37953a6f4557
Perks of Reading a Banned Book (Producer). (2019, June). Perks of being a wallflower [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6hyQrgEcbN6DbTWh4B9mjH?si=gVNcEaJRSKufGPZPHGPjfg
Isn’t it Past Your Bedtime? (Producer). (2020, September). Episode 32 – YA Why we read banned books. Retrieved from
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1oPuugR8fVRJaAY6PKrIxR?si=8ye3wFETRq-AKpwm7y6rNQ
Newspaper Articles
Kruse, J. (2016). Students, parents, teachers to weigh future of “Wallflower” novel in Dubuque schools. Telegraph Herald. https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/tri-state/article_2273e0bf-1149-5ed7-815e-e59ee30e9773.html
CBC News. (2014). Ban the Perks of Being a Wallflower from schools, says B.C. dad. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ban-the-perks-of-being-a-wallflower-from-schools-says-b-c-dad-1.2587041
Hi Akansha,
The topic of censorship is such an interesting one; it has such a long and ongoing history. I found your blog post to be so interesting and I agree with you fully that everyone young adult should have the freedom to read what they want. It is impossible to know how someone will react to a theme or issue in a book and it seems so utterly ridiculous that a book is banned or censored on the off chance that a single student will be negatively affected by it. Young adults deserve the opportunity to see how issues are dealt with even in a fictional sense. Where the same themes and issues are so readily available on other media. One of the things I found interesting from my own research into censorship is that it is such a broad spectrum of different reasons why a book can be excluded from a collection. (Rumberger, 2020) Some of the reasons being reading levels, which makes a lot of sense when you think more on it.
Reference List
Rumberger, A. (2019). The elementary school library: Tensions between access and censorship. Contemporary issues in early childhood, 20(4), 409-421.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949119888491