Concerned parents in Texas want to ban Brave New World and Stranger in a Strange Land.
The board of directors for the South Texas Independent School District is expected to decide tonight whether to ban two books — Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land — from the high school’s 10th grade English Advanced Placement curriculum.
The books, part of the class’ summer reading list, may lead to “inappropriate sexual arousal of young teens,” parent Julie Wilde wrote in her complaint to the district.
Obviously (to me, at least), this is patently stupid. But I did have one question.
Would Ms. Wilde be so kind as to suggest some alternate reading that provides appropriate sexual arousal for young teens?
Britney Spears’ autobiography, perhaps?
(via Go Fish)
Uhmmmmmm….
How exactly is Brave New World sexually arousing in any way? I know there’s the one scene where the chick tries to seduce the ‘savage’… but honestly! It’s all of a page long! No teen is going to fixate on that one page when they can go find Mommy’s Nancy Friday book in her night table.
Ss often, Mike, your comments made me laugh.
I guess appropriate sexual arousal would be the Abacrombie and Fitch (sp?) catalog.
Yesterday, Dawn and I were talking. Before the Peace Corps she served a stint in Americorps, working in the Texas Panhandle trying to help stem the outbreaks of adolescent pregnancy, where women as young as 11 were getting pregnant. Her office set up a sex education center, with inducements such as little gift baskets of comdoms and dicounts on health and beauty products. She ran into opposition from persons who felt such an approach was counterproductive, as young girls would purposely get pregnant to get the gift basket.
One can never go wrong betting on human stupidity.
Some people are just so suppressed in their sexuality. Don’t they know that sex permeates nearly every aspect of our lives? Not only is it in nearly every piece of advertising on the market today, sex was there before there was advertising and the more taboo you make it the more erotic it becomes.
I would think it would be easier to educate kids and help them cope with their own sexuality and help guide them so they can make their own decisions. Sure, they’re not fully grown adults, but then not many adults act as responsible as they should.
I can’t wait to see the comeback of the chastity belt! [/sarcasm]
I’m reminded of the time a lady friend of Gary’s came over to talk Gary (a 25 year RN) about her sons “sexual arousal” at the drop of a hat. She wanted to remove DVD’s (007/Bond) from the house that might cause more “sexual arousal”.
He said
“Your son is 17, he could look at a hamburger and get aroused, If he didn’t get sexual arousal from a Bond movie he wouldn’t be normal. Accept the fact that his hormones are working properly. And talk to a professional about your over-reacting to your sons normal sexuality.”
Truer words were never spoken.
Well, speaking as some one who was once a teenage boy – just about anything can arouse you up to and including warm mud.
Obviously the fine folks of Texas, who we should not criticize since they gave us our fine president, understand that better than we do.
I am a 43 year old woman happily married for 20 years. In my office, I work wirh 2 19-20 year old girls (college students). Oral sex and anal sex is not considered SEX to them and most of their friends. It is bacically fourth base to them. I am shocked! To me, oral/anal sex is so much more intimate than vaginal sex. What do I tell my son? Sexual feelimgs are normal, God given, but at 15 you need to exhibit self control. Any suggestions would be appreciatee.
Jackie — while I’m not sure I’m necessarily the best person for advice, not having any kids of my own, the most important thing in my mind is honesty and openness.
I truly believe that many of the issues we have today with kids and sex are 1) probably the same problems that parents have had with kids and sex for ages, we just hear about it more these days, and 2) exacerbated by our culture’s bizarre (and to my mind, backwards) love of violence and abhorrence of sexuality.
Don’t press the issue — few things are more likely to freak a teen out than his parents being too eager to talk about sexuality — but don’t shy away from or avoid the subject, either. If your son has any questions for you or your husband, answer them openly and honestly (or at least as honestly as you deem best, depending on the question and the possible answer).
Lead by example (which, if you’ve got twenty years of successful marriage behind you, I can only assume that you’re doing already). I like to think that my parents did a wonderful job of instilling good practices and morals in me, not by overtly attempting to drive things into my head or actively trying to mold me in their image, but simply by virtue of bringing me up in a warm, loving environment, and one where they were able and willing to answer questions I had when I had them (and was willing to ask them).
That said, don’t just sit back and hope that your son will come to you in all instances, either. If things catch your eye, don’t ignore them and hope that they’ll go away — ask about them, and see if he’s willing to talk. Kids may not always be entirely comfortable in the situations they get into, and they may not always be willing to come out and say something about it, but they’re not always entirely unwilling to talk about them when given an opportunity where they don’t feel pressured, or like they’re automatically in trouble.
There’s probably a frighteningly thin line between not trusting a child and ending up being too overprotective and trusting too much and giving the child enough rope to hang themselves with. I have no idea how I’ll handle it if and when I become a parent, but I hope that I do at least as well with my children as my parents did with me.