One of the things I do to keep track of what is happening in right-wing ecosystems with regard to libraries and books is peek at the Facebook pages of some of the right-wing reactionary folk that live in the same general geographic location as me from time to time.
During one of my check-ins I noticed that the person who runs the fb page had shared a post by a county commissioner for a large and populous county in Kansas. The post was a web cartoon by a local conservative cartoonist attacking the library for having a book called You Know, Sex by Cory Silverberg & Fiona Smith in its collection.
I visited the commissioner’s fb page and noted that prior to posting the cartoon she attempted to do an end run around official library procedure by making a post encouraging followers to contact the county librarian as well as the board of county commissioners to complain about the book.
This particular library is incredibly well-resourced and has a comprehensive, publicly available collection development policy as well as a request for reconsideration procedure that is also available for any patrons that wish to have materials moved or withdrawn.
Like some other attempts to fan the flames of indignation online, these posts are light on factual information, using trigger words to cause a negative response in whoever reads them.
Does this book contain information about porn, rape, anal and all of it? Yes it does but it is not gratuitous, it is a guide to being safe and aware. Pornography this book is most definitely not!
Break for a quick book review:
Being an inquisitive sort, I put a request in for a copy of You Know, Sex and what I found may astound you. Yes it is a graphic (as in graphic novel) non-fiction guide to sex, sexuality and gender. It is thoughtfully written and illustrated, with nothing that can be considered prurient, titillating or pornographic. The illustrations of human bodies are presented in all their unique, imperfect glory.
In short this book is about as far from porn as you can get, it introduces concepts and ideas in a way that does not talk down to the reader – whatever their age may be. It is frank, open and honest and contains a LOT of information that can be digested at whatever speed the reader is happiest with. The author addresses the reader in the opening Letter to the Reader acknowledging that sex is a complex subject to learn about, and suggests ways in which to cope with using this book.
It also contains a glossary which is important for fostering better understanding of the subject and an index and resources and organizations that can further understanding of the subject. Another thing I found particularly useful are the tips on searching for information online and URLs for trusted web resources.
If you are a parent, or educator looking for a book about sex for readers of all ages then I highly recommend You Know, Sex for your family or/and library collection.
I will say that you as an adult should also read it – you will definitely learn something and will also be able to discuss it with the young people in your life, if they trust you enough (or, are not too embarrassed) to broach the subject.
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This is not the first time that the commissioner in question has used her position to attack the library over books for young readers. In 2023 she weighed in on the YALSA Teens Top 10 program that the library was involved with that had upset a parent, from The Heartlander News: Library in suburban Kansas City offers free books to youths, perhaps unnoticed by parents, that portray whites as racists, colonizers
From Free State News comes a slightly reworded piece, similar to the one in The Heartlander News: Johnson County Library distributes pornographic gore to developing teen minds in their Summer Reading Program
Although the change from the Heartlander piece saying “Williams doesn’t accuse the Gardner library, or even the Johnson County library system, of propagating leftist propaganda, but adds, “I do believe 100% that it’s pushed intentionally from a larger agenda, maybe even outside of our state.”
to: “I would like to know what staff created this list, and I would like those people arrested for distributing murder-fetish porn to my child. This should be a criminal offense, punishable by jail time.
In Luke 17:1-2 the Bible states, “Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.”
I’ll take millstones for 1,000, Alex. These people need to be punished to the full extent of the law for warping and destroying the minds of our youth with their selfish, morbid agendas.” in the Free State news piece is quite a change in tone.
We are in an election year and it remains to be seen if culture war topics, particularly an attack on a large and popular library over books will be a vote-getter in a county that has been consistently trending purple over the past few years.
