Sexy books: Celebrate your freedom to read during Banned Books Week

Over on my Sex Education column, I recently reported on this year's Banned Books Week list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Titles, a list that includes Lauren Myracle's young adult books, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga, Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson's same-sex penguin parenting book And Tango Makes Three, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War, Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper, and Carolyn Mackler's The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things.

According to the American Library Association and the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, many other titles were challenged, removed, or banned from libraries in the period between May 2009 and May 2010. Here are some of the sexiest titles on the list, for my readers here heading to their local library this week to celebrate their own freedom to read, along with some notes on recent challenges to each from the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom:

Alex Comfort's Joy of Sex, Crown; Simon & Schuster

Restricted minors’ access in the Topeka and Shawnee County, Kans. Public Library (2009) because the organization Kansans for Common Sense contended that the material is “harmful to minors under state law.” Later the board voted 6–3 in favor of adopting a staff recommendation to keep the books where they are currently located on the shelves in the library’s Health Information Neighborhood section. Source: May 2009,
pp. 77−78; July 2009, p. 139.

Esther Drill's Deal With It A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL, Pocket Books

Challenged at the West Bend, Wis. Community Memorial Library (2009) as being “pornographic and worse than an R-rated movie.” The library board unanimously voted 9–0 to maintain, “without removing, relocating, labeling, or otherwise restricting access,” the books in the young adult category at the West Bend Community Memorial Library. The vote was a rejection of a four-month campaign conducted by the citizen’s group West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries to move fiction and nonfiction books with sexually explicit passages from the young adult section to the adult section and label them as containing sexual material. Source: May 2009, pp. 80–81;
Sept. 2009, pp. 169–70.

Emily Dubberley's Sex for Busy People: The Art of the Quickie for Lovers on the Go, Simon & Schuster

Restricted minors’ access in the Topeka and Shawnee County, Kans. Public Library (2009) because the organization Kansans for Common Sense contended that the material is “harmful to minors under state law.” Later the board voted 6–3 in favor of adopting a staff recommendation to keep the books where they are currently located on the shelves in the library’s Health Information Neighborhood section. Source: May 2009,
pp. 77–78; July 2009, p. 139.

Eric Marlowe Garrison's Mastering Multiple Position Sex, Quiver

Challenged, but retained at the Pataskala, Ohio Public Library (2009). The library determined to implement a new juvenile library card. A parent or guardian will be able to sign off on the card, thereby restricting his or her child’s borrowing rights to juvenile materials. Source: Jan. 2010, pp. 12–13; Mar. 2010, p. 53.

Kat Harding's Lesbian Kama Sutra, Thomas Dunne Books

Restricted minors’ access in the Topeka and Shawnee County, Kans. Public Library (2009) because the organization Kansans for Common Sense contended that the material is “harmful to minors under state law.” Later the board voted 6–3 in favor of adopting a staff recommendation to keep the books where they are currently located on the shelves in the library’s Health Information Neighborhood section. Source: May 2009, pp. 77–78; July 2009, p. 139.

Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster

Pulled from the Menifee, Calif. Union School District (2010) because a parent complained when a child came across the term “oral sex.” Officials said the district is forming a committee to consider a permanent classroom ban of the dictionary. Source: Mar. 2010, p. 55.

David Sedari's short story "I Like Guys," from Naked, Back Bay Books

Pulled from a Litchfield, N.H. Campbell High School elective course classroom (2009) after parents voiced their concerns about a short-stories unit called “Love/Gender/Family Unit” that dealt with subject matters including abortion, cannibalism, homosexuality, and drug use. The parents said the stories promoted bad behavior and a “political agenda” and they shouldn’t be incorporated into classroom teachings. The Campbell High School English curriculum adviser said the short story was selected not only for its tone and style, but also its message of respect and acceptance, not for advocating homosexuality. The English curriculum adviser eventually resigned. Source: Sept. 2009, p. 154.

Charles Silverstein and Felice Picano's The Joy of Gay Sex, Harper

Challenged in the Lewis and Clark Library in Helena, Mont. (2008) due to objections over its content. The book has been in the library’s collection since 1993. The library director accepted the recommendation of the library’s collection review committee that the book be retained in the collection. Restricted minors’ access in the Topeka and Shawnee County, Kans. Public Library (2009) because the organization Kansans for Common Sense contended that the material is “harmful to minors under state law.” Later the board voted 6–3 in favor of adopting a staff recommendation to keep the books where they are currently located on the shelves in the library’s Health Information Neighborhood section. Source: Nov. 2008, pp. 231–32, 254–55; May 2009, pp. 77–78; July 2009, p. 139.

To download the full .pdf of Books Challenged and/or Banned in 2009-2010 (and previous years) follow these links:

• Books Challenged and/or Banned - 2009-2010 (PDF)
  
• Books Challenged and/or Banned - 2008-2009 (PDF)
• Books Challenged and/or Banned - 2007-2008 (PDF)
• Books Challenged and/or Banned - 2006-2007 (PDF)
• Books Challenged and/or Banned - 2005-2006 (PDF)
• Books Challenged and/or Banned - 2004-2005 (PDF)

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