Veronica Gets a Gaydar, and Comic Books Get a Warning Label?
The newest addition to the Archie comics’ cast is a major diversity plus: Kevin, gay, presumably proud, and totally immune to Veronica’s charms (now she and Betty can compete to see who’ll get the gay best friend). But I’m going out on a limb and predicting that one Dixie Fechtel of Leesburg, FL might think the whole “Isn’t it Bromantic?” issue merited a big fat “Mature Audiences” label–and she’s far from the only one who’d like to attack the library’s YA shelves with some warning labels and some paste.
Ms. Fechtel has been fighting to have the Lake County Library System label and segregate books like the Gossip Girl series ever since her fifteen-year-old brought one on a family vacation in 2008. Librarians have so far resisted: “Our policy clearly states that it’s a parent’s responsibility to review what their child is checking out,” says Tom Merchant. “It’s not our role to impose one group of parents’ idea on all children in the library.” Other Florida libraries have gone a small distance in this direction: in the Orange County library system, no one younger than 13 or older than 18 can enter the “Club Central” area which houses the YA novels without an escort, although there’s no suggestion that the escort would censor a kids’ book selections if he or she were brave enough to run the gamut of possible adult or teen disapproval.
Earlier this year, novelist Tony Buchsbaum, writing for January Magazine, also proposed warning labels for books after he read a choice snippit from the YA novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson that included the line “cock + pussy = a happy rooster-kitten couple” (this and other colorful language was a part of instant message repartee among the male teen protagonists). Grayson believed that the book was the first time his son had encountered such phrases (which also included a reference to a “fierce quivering manpole”) and this may be true. His response was to ask why the publisher didn’t find a way to warn parents about the content of the book (to offer parents an opportunity to talk about it), which sounds innocuous enough–until you consider the many, many other possible uses for such a label, and what it might be applied to.
Would “Isn’t it Brolicious?” merit a sticker? Probably not–but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want that to be Ms. Fechtel’s call.
Images courtesy of Archie Comics
Censorship is for small minds. If your that worried about what your child is reading, read it first and ten decide if they can read it. As for references to cock, pussy, and quivering manpoles, 1- I gauruntee he’s heard it before among his peers in school. 2- I’d much rather he discover things like that in book form than say, a chat room or porn.
She was upset that her fifteen year old was reading the GG series? Really? My brother and I drove our Mom nuts – we read above our age level by far, and my Mom had to explain to us why we weren’t allowed to check out books that matched our reading levels at times (an 8 year old really doesn’t need to read Flowers in the Attic). But that’s the key: MOM and DAD set the boundaries; they didn’t get tee’d off at the library.
My parents allowed me to check out and read any book I wanted, even when I read far beyond my grade level. My mom was called several times by my teachers when they worried that what I was reading was “too old” for me. Her rule was simple. I could read anything, but we were going to talk about it. If I wasn’t mature enough to handle a conversation with my parents about the subject matter, I wasn’t mature enough to handle the book. I credit them with my love of reading, my critical thinking skills, and my ability to ask interesting questions.