'Filthy Book' Attack Spotlights Date-Rape Novel
source: http://www.womensenews.org/story/books/101212/filthy-book-attack-spotlights-date-rape-novel
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http://www.womensenews.org/story/books/101212/filthy-book-attack-spot...
A Missouri State University professor's bid to ban a young-adult novel about date rape, among other "filthy books," from the school district's English courses is spurring young-adult authors and teachers to speak out against censorship in a country where more than 10,676 books have been challenged in libraries and schools since 1990."Teens don't live in a vacuum," Andrea Cremer, author of the young-adult novel "Nightshade," wrote in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. "They inhabit the same brutal world as adults without the knowledge and tools of adulthood. For those teens whose lives have already been affected by drugs, violence, suicide or any number of traumatic experiences--what children as well as adults struggle with--books can provide comfort, healing or simply the realization that one isn't alone."
One in six women will be a victim of sexual assault during her life, according to data published by the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, based in Washington, D.C. Young women between 16 and 19 are four times more likely to be victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault.
"Speak," a young-adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson about a teen who was raped at a party, is on the New York Times bestseller list, was a National Book Award finalist and has received many honors, including the Michael L. Printz and Golden Kite awards.
However, Wesley Scroggins, an associate professor of business management at Missouri State University in Springfield and a fundamentalist Christian, is demanding that "Speak" and two other books be banned from public high school English coursework in Republic, Mo.
Scroggins filed his complaint in June to the Missouri public school board and wrote an opinion piece on Sept. 18, arguing that the two rape scenes in the novel should be classified as "soft pornography."
http://www.womensenews.org/story/books/101212/filthy-book-attack-spotlights-date...
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