(CNN) — Police in western Massachusetts apologized Thursday after an officer was sent to a middle school to search for a copy of “Gender Queer: ARead More
You would actually need to read the book to understand the context of that page and see that it is, in fact, not graphic. The blurring makes it look worse than it actually is. Kind of like when Jimmy Kimmell does “un-necessary censorship” for laughs.
The penis here is not actually a penis. The top blurred panel is captioned “this is the visual I’d been picturing”, and in the 2nd panel it’s clear that the couple is engaging in strap on play, with the caption “But I can’t feel anything. This was much hotter when it was only in my imagination.”
In the end, the book is a touching, 241 page book about what it’s like to struggle with gender identity and some people want to get hung up on mis-representing 2 panels on page 168.
High school/middle school kids who struggle with their gender identity absolutely need exposure to this book.
People who lack empathy for what others are going through need to read it more.
When the school’s policies put kids at risk of actual harm (ie the principal pulling down young girls underwear and spanking them as a punitive measure). Anything before that? Abso-fucking-lutely nothing. Something like this should’ve, at most, been handled by the principal of the school.
Not sure if they do, but I don’t think it would be inappropriate. They (hopefully) already had proper sex-ed at this point and any explicit image showing how consent and sex beyond penetration looks like are in my opinion very welcome.
Also, would you have less problem with it being heterosexual?
The point they are making is there seems to be a bias toward lgb… material when it comes to early sex ed exposure. It seems like some sort of misguided projection form the adults in that community that had a hard childhood. They are (over) correcting for the lack of acceptance they had as young people. In my opinion.
Stephen King’s IT was in my middleschool library, go fuck yourself.
I had READ a myriad of descriptions of hererosexual relationships by the time I was entering high school, it’s EVERYWHERE. Couple that with an overabundance of shitty people who think the sexuality of others is their business, and it was a REAL fucking struggle to figure out how/why I don’t fit into every single portrayal of a relationship I’ve ever seen.
Let’s be honest here, most kids at that age have already seen porn. I saw porn as a kid far before I got a proper sex ed.
Not making sex out to be such a shameful thing to be hidden away would be very beneficial. It took me years to properly understand sex the way I do now, and in such a way for it to suit me. Before then I had a lot of weird preconceived notions that were not helpful at all.
Sex is natural and normal, what’s the point of turning it into such a big thing that needs to be hidden away? Especially when most kids at that age start to have sexual feelings. It’s better to provide them a safe and open environment, as well as making sex just be a normal thing, than basically force kids to get their information elsewhere and experiment without knowledge about consent etc.
Ever heard of the term “educational setting”? You can also neither use copyrighted works at your workplace, but you can in an educational setting.
There is a big difference between, you know, a space specifically designed to teach kids about all they need to know about the world (including the things you find gross), and a place with an agreed upon environment by the participants to perform a specific task. Not to mention that, yeah, some organizations or places of work do indeed deal with sexual things.
I don’t even know why you bring in the workplace honestly, it’s completely irrelevant, as its a completely different environment. Neither would it be appropriate for most workplaces to hold a seminar about world war 2 now, would it?
It is extremely relevant. Are you saying I’m not allowed to talk about porn at work with other adults, but a teacher can talk about porn in their workplace? … WITH CHILDREN!!! It is not like we already don’t have news about sexual abuse coming from teachers.
What the fuck are you smoking? What kind of mentally deranged mind thinks a blow job needs to be in the curriculum? Even if you think a blow job is important for your child, because “it is a great career choice and a way to climb the ladder”, it is not something one can’t learn on their own. It is not exactly a rocket science.
At least try to make a reasoned out argument instead of an emotional attack.
Demystifying and normalizing sex is not a bad thing. Why should we be ashamed of it and our bodies? Making sex out to be such a shameful thing to be hidden away caused far more damage to me than sex positivity ever did. And it’s not like it stops sexual abuse either, because, well… how does a child knowing less cause there to be less sexual abuse? Abusers thrive on ignorance.
I think they do now. It’s a less shameful time and not really inappropriate. I grew up in the 80s-90s so the library wasn’t the free for all it was decades earlier. People had already started to treat it as a political battleground.
That said, we were given SexEd starting in 4th grade, so a book with mild sexual content (the book isn’t pornagraphy) 3-4 years after that, is very appropriate, since everyone with access to the text would have already have prerequisite knowledge to understand the context of the book.
Honestly, I wish things like this were more common in my youth. Whenever they would ask if people had questions and let us submit them on paper anonymously, there probably would have been more discussion.
Any questions any kid has about growing up, certainly including questions about their bodies and sexuality, should be easily answerable from an open shelf at the school library.
I didn’t know about the book, but this article made me look for an example of what they are talking about. Here’s one: https://alphanews.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/genderqueer-1-1.jpg
I think it indeed went too far a middle school book and it could talk about gender without being graphic.
You would actually need to read the book to understand the context of that page and see that it is, in fact, not graphic. The blurring makes it look worse than it actually is. Kind of like when Jimmy Kimmell does “un-necessary censorship” for laughs.
The penis here is not actually a penis. The top blurred panel is captioned “this is the visual I’d been picturing”, and in the 2nd panel it’s clear that the couple is engaging in strap on play, with the caption “But I can’t feel anything. This was much hotter when it was only in my imagination.”
In the end, the book is a touching, 241 page book about what it’s like to struggle with gender identity and some people want to get hung up on mis-representing 2 panels on page 168.
High school/middle school kids who struggle with their gender identity absolutely need exposure to this book.
People who lack empathy for what others are going through need to read it more.
Under what circumstances does a school’s curriculum or materials become the
previewpurview of the cops?I think most cops are MAGA supporters. Probably not too difficult to find one that would make such a thing their job.
purview?
Yes.
When the school’s policies put kids at risk of actual harm (ie the principal pulling down young girls underwear and spanking them as a punitive measure). Anything before that? Abso-fucking-lutely nothing. Something like this should’ve, at most, been handled by the principal of the school.
deleted by creator
Isn’t middle school like 11-14ish?
Sure, but do schools carry such material even heterosexual? And no, this is not the same as learning anatomy.
Not sure if they do, but I don’t think it would be inappropriate. They (hopefully) already had proper sex-ed at this point and any explicit image showing how consent and sex beyond penetration looks like are in my opinion very welcome.
Also, would you have less problem with it being heterosexual?
The point they are making is there seems to be a bias toward lgb… material when it comes to early sex ed exposure. It seems like some sort of misguided projection form the adults in that community that had a hard childhood. They are (over) correcting for the lack of acceptance they had as young people. In my opinion.
Stephen King’s IT was in my middleschool library, go fuck yourself.
I had READ a myriad of descriptions of hererosexual relationships by the time I was entering high school, it’s EVERYWHERE. Couple that with an overabundance of shitty people who think the sexuality of others is their business, and it was a REAL fucking struggle to figure out how/why I don’t fit into every single portrayal of a relationship I’ve ever seen.
Let’s be honest here, most kids at that age have already seen porn. I saw porn as a kid far before I got a proper sex ed.
Not making sex out to be such a shameful thing to be hidden away would be very beneficial. It took me years to properly understand sex the way I do now, and in such a way for it to suit me. Before then I had a lot of weird preconceived notions that were not helpful at all.
Sex is natural and normal, what’s the point of turning it into such a big thing that needs to be hidden away? Especially when most kids at that age start to have sexual feelings. It’s better to provide them a safe and open environment, as well as making sex just be a normal thing, than basically force kids to get their information elsewhere and experiment without knowledge about consent etc.
Yeah, so did pretty much all adults that are working, yet porn is not allowed at most workplaces.
Ever heard of the term “educational setting”? You can also neither use copyrighted works at your workplace, but you can in an educational setting.
There is a big difference between, you know, a space specifically designed to teach kids about all they need to know about the world (including the things you find gross), and a place with an agreed upon environment by the participants to perform a specific task. Not to mention that, yeah, some organizations or places of work do indeed deal with sexual things.
I don’t even know why you bring in the workplace honestly, it’s completely irrelevant, as its a completely different environment. Neither would it be appropriate for most workplaces to hold a seminar about world war 2 now, would it?
It is extremely relevant. Are you saying I’m not allowed to talk about porn at work with other adults, but a teacher can talk about porn in their workplace? … WITH CHILDREN!!! It is not like we already don’t have news about sexual abuse coming from teachers.
What the fuck are you smoking? What kind of mentally deranged mind thinks a blow job needs to be in the curriculum? Even if you think a blow job is important for your child, because “it is a great career choice and a way to climb the ladder”, it is not something one can’t learn on their own. It is not exactly a rocket science.
At least try to make a reasoned out argument instead of an emotional attack.
Demystifying and normalizing sex is not a bad thing. Why should we be ashamed of it and our bodies? Making sex out to be such a shameful thing to be hidden away caused far more damage to me than sex positivity ever did. And it’s not like it stops sexual abuse either, because, well… how does a child knowing less cause there to be less sexual abuse? Abusers thrive on ignorance.
I think they do now. It’s a less shameful time and not really inappropriate. I grew up in the 80s-90s so the library wasn’t the free for all it was decades earlier. People had already started to treat it as a political battleground.
That said, we were given SexEd starting in 4th grade, so a book with mild sexual content (the book isn’t pornagraphy) 3-4 years after that, is very appropriate, since everyone with access to the text would have already have prerequisite knowledge to understand the context of the book.
Honestly, I wish things like this were more common in my youth. Whenever they would ask if people had questions and let us submit them on paper anonymously, there probably would have been more discussion.
Exactly. :)
Any questions any kid has about growing up, certainly including questions about their bodies and sexuality, should be easily answerable from an open shelf at the school library.
Except per the article this book was not at the school