AB Gov’t Survey Seems To Promote Book Banning

Editorial/Opinion

Examples of Books That Likely Would be Banned - From the Author’s Collection

Go Ask Alice was the subject of banning when it came out, it describes a teenage girl giving oral sex in return for drugs. Clan of the Cave Bear goes into great detail about fertility rites and sex among Neanderthals. Shogun has numerous passages that include sexual activity. The main character, Blackthorne, is embarrassed to get an erection during a forced bath. His host translates what his elderly mother said ”thank you, the best her life, now die happy”.

The Alberta Government wants to know what you think about certain books in our schools. They even include some of the “offensive” material that you can peruse before taking their survey. I am quite sure that none of this material is available to children in the younger grades; these books are NOT part of the curriculum. They are merely available in the school libraries.

Here’s the reality. Tom asked my colleague Alex McCuaig (who is a parent of a school age child) about these books and he said

There’s this thing called the internet…

Alex is absolutely right. The internet is full of titillating subjects and is available to anybody and everybody. Even the “adult only” sites often only ask you for your date of birth to make sure you’re old enough and as we all know, nobody ever lies in cyberspace. <sarcasm>

What was life like For Children before the internet?

Were children more protected from knowing about sexual subjects? Was there less influence of sexual orientation outside the societal norm of heterosexuals?

Let me tell you a bit about my life growing up. Even though these events occurred decades ago on the West Coast, the names have been changed.

I was born in the early 1960s, we were quite innocent and unknowledgeable.

I remember being in a bath with my two brothers when I was very young - the oldest was at the front, my other brother was in the middle and I was at the back. We helped wash each other’s back; I was annoyed that my back didn’t get washed (although I’m sure my mom did that). 

I remember all 3 of us standing around a toilet, I tried to pee into it like my brothers. I was annoyed that I couldn’t do it with the equipment I had. (Spoiler, I just made a mess on the floor.)

Did it make me want to change my gender? Nope, I was just irritated at the inconvenience. (I’m still annoyed every time I must squat somewhere to pee, having a penis would be handy at times.) Sometimes I wanted to be a boy so I didn't have to wear the skirts my mom forced me to wear to school, it doesn’t make me transgender. Males did have much more perks when I was a kid, we females were stuck with the shitty end of the stick all too often.

I remember finding a Playboy magazine when I was about 6. I looked through those pages in wonder, their grownup bodies were so much different than mine. Yes, I saw full frontal photos of naked breasts, bottoms and pubic hair. Did it turn me into a lesbian? Nope. Girls might be fun to play with but I’ve never felt a romantic attraction to a female.

I remember walking around topless until I was about 9. When I started wearing a shirt all the time I was annoyed that my brothers could still go topless.

I remember being at a sleepover with boys in the room when I was about 9. One of the 11-12 yr old boys wanted to get in my sleeping bag with me, he was naked. He said it would “feel really good”. Here’s the thing - nobody told him to not do it. Nobody stepped up to protect me. I kept jumping up to turn the lights on and he eventually gave up. Looking back years later, I realized I narrowly escaped being sexually assaulted before I was 10. I don’t blame the others in the room, they also had no knowledge of what was appropriate in regards to sex.

I remember being at my friend Susie’s house with our other friend Liz, we were waiting for Susie to finish her chores. Susies’ grandfather lived with her, her 3 sisters and her parents. Her grandfather looked after the farm animals - cows, chickens, ducks, and geese. He asked Liz and I to go up to the hayloft. When we were all up there, he asked us “Do you want to hump?” He had a heavy German accent and we had to ask him to repeat it. Liz and I went down and never told any adults about it. I did not find out until decades later that he sexually abused all 4 of his own granddaughters. Many people thought he was such a nice old man.

I remember my friend Liz telling me she had given her virginity to her brother. She eventually entered into a lesbian relationship with Susie’s older sister who had been working as a prostitute at the tender age of 15. Perhaps if Susie’s sister had known how to protect herself (and her 3 younger sisters) from her grandfather, she might have had a very different life.

I remember my mom’s boyfriend coming into my bedroom, he wanted to give me something. He was waiting for my mom to come home from work; he had been drinking.  He tried to lift up my nightie while I was sitting on my bed. I told him to get out; fortunately he did. 

I was 12

I never told my mom until years later; it was not something anybody talked about.

When people did start to talk about child sexual abuse in the 1980s, many people thought it was a new thing. It wasn’t. It had been happening all the time but now the children were learning that this behaviour was not acceptable and was against the law.

I remember learning to masturbate. Did anybody teach me? Nope. Raging hormones and wandering hands did it all.

I remember horny teenagers with raging hormones experimenting with same sex partners in preparation for heterosexual encounters. Some discovered they preferred their own sex, some discovered they were bisexual, some discovered they were heterosexual. Who told us how to do this? Nobody - we had no magazines, no internet, no movies with any of this content. It’s human nature.

Many people hold up the Christian Bible as a source of morality

Some think that if we put God back in the classroom then all will be well. Hmmm….. did I mention we said the Lord’s Prayer every morning in school?

About going to church…

I remember going to Sunday School with my friends. We went because it was the only way for my friend Susie to escape doing chores on Sunday mornings.

Here’s some of the subject matter that was taught to us grade 5 students in Sunday School.

Lot and His Daughters A couple of men (who were allegedly angels) were invited to Lot’s house. The house was surrounded by people who wanted to have homosexual sex with these angels. Lot offered up his own virgin daughters to be sexually assaulted by a mob.

This apparently was okay with God for Lot to do this as God chose to spare Lot and family when the fire and brimstone was sent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

During the escape, Lot's wife died when she turned into a pillar of salt. Lot and his daughters lived in a cave. His daughters were upset that their prospective husbands died when the fire and brimstone rained down from the skies (God was pissed) and thought they would never have children. So what did they do? Did they pray for God to send them husbands? Nope. They got their father drunk and they both sexually assaulted him so they could have children by him.

According to my Sunday School teacher this was okay because they needed to continue Lot’s line.

The Attempted Murder of Isaac by His Own Father Another story we were taught was about God testing Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his own son Isaac.

Again, this was apparently okay because it showed that Abraham had faith.

Can you imagine teaching children to believe that it is okay if your own father kills you to prove their faith? If that happened today, that person would either be in jail or a mental institution.

If the Alberta Government thinks certain books are bad
they’d better add the Bible to that list

That book is acceptable everywhere and speaks of

• advocating sexual assault of family members (Lot and his daughters)

• incest (Lot and his daughters)

• sexual assault (Lot and his daughters)

• attempted murder (Abraham and Isaac)

• taking sexual advantage of servants (the original Handmaid’s Tale of Abraham, Sara and Hagar)

• mass murder of children (Passover)

• of murder (Cain and Abel)

• of genocide (the Great Flood, Jericho, Sodom and Gomorrah, etc etc etc)

• of slavery, etc.

  That’s just in the first two books.
  These subjects are being taught to children in churches.

I looked at the “offensive” material and I see nothing wrong with most of it, at least for older grades. Again, they are NOT part of the curriculum, they are merely books available in the school libraries. I’m not even sure if any are available in the lower grades (K-6). Removing them from a school library doesn’t mean the children won’t have any access to these books at all. As soon as a list of banned books is published, that is when they will seek them out.

Illustrations depicting nudity is not an issue with me. Many famous artworks include nudity. There are numerous artworks hundred of years old depicting Lot with his daughters that show full frontal nudity.

Illustrations depicting homosexual embraces is not an issue with me. People hug.

Dialogue portraying homosexuality is not an issue with me. Talking about it or seeing it does not pervert people, either they’re attracted or they’re not.

Dialogue portraying masturbation is not an issue with me. Everybody does it no matter how much they deny it.

Dialogue where boys talk about penis size, fondling, and oral sex is not an issue with me. If a parent is under the delusion that their son would never say such things, they are sadly mistaken. (Btw, your daughters are talking about breast size, oral sex and how much penetration will hurt.)

Conversations about how child sexual abuse happens are not an issue with me. Most abused children are abused by people they know - family members, friends of family, trusted people in the community - religious leaders, coaches, law enforcement, teachers,etc. Sometimes it is the most upstanding citizen who is the biggest predator. Predators seek out positions of trust so that they can have access to children without questions.

Not all parents are good parents; their children need the knowledge to protect themselves. The other children need the knowledge so they can protect themselves against predators outside their family.

If parents are truly worried about these books
they should talk to their children about them

My children often came home from school with some ideas I thought were stupid. Did I call up the school and whine about it? Nope. My husband and I talked with our children. We debated the subjects and we all came to a better understanding of the subject material. It was a chance for our children to use their critical thinking skills, a skill they will use for the rest of their lives. They do not blindly believe everything they’re taught, they make people bring the receipts.

Librarians are the people with the education and the training to know what books to select for their students. They should be the ones deciding what can be in our libraries.

This survey is severely flawed with leading questions which are designed to provoke a negative reaction, implying that these materials are available to all ages. They also do not define what is sexually explicit. You can take the survey as many times as you want.

Yes, parents deserve to have a choice and they do - they have the choice to talk to their children.

Book Banning is Not the Answer -Knowledge is power

The Survey is only open until Friday June 6 2025.