Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Some people have no sense of humor. Some people find obscenity where there is none. Case in point: Earlier this year, parents of a kindergarten student in the Annville-Cleona School District made a complaint about The Dirty Cowboy, a humorous picture book that their child brought home from the school library. The parents felt that Adam Rex’s illustrations of the cowboy’s partial nudity in the book were “pornographic” and wanted it banned. In April, the school board agreed with the parents and voted unanimously to remove the book from school libraries in the district.
Note: Before the school board’s vote, the district’s book review committee voted 5-1 to remove the book, with Cleona librarian Anita Mentzer voting against it. Other committee members included Annville-Cleona Superintendent Steven Houser, the assistant superintendent, the technology director, and Cleona Elementary’s principal. (School Library Journal)
There were protests against the banning of The Dirty Cowboy by free-speech organizations and an online petition in favor of repealing the ban that was signed by more than 300 people. The National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression sent a letter to the district asking that the book be returned to school library shelves.
An excerpt from the letter:
The practical effect of acceding to any request to restrict access to materials is to invite others to demand changes to reflect their beliefs, which would leave school officials vulnerable to multiple, possibly conflicting, demands, and leave the library in tatters. T he role of the library is to allow students and parents to make choices according to their own interests, experiences, and family values. No one has to read a book simply because it’s on the library shelf. We strongly urge you to keep The Dirty Cowboy in Annville-Cleona elementary school libraries. The decision to remove the book not only accedes to a specific viewpoint about the acceptability of nudity, but also deprives the entire student body of access to a highly praised book that many students, and their parents, would wish to read. Those who object to this book are entitled to their view, but they may not impose it on others. Any other decision threatens the principle that is essential to individual freedom, democracy, and a good education: the right to read, inquire, question, and think for ourselves.
Tim White reported in the Lebanon Daily News that despite outcry from the community, national media coverage, letters from the American Library Association and other organizations, and numerous pleas to reconsider, “the board refused to take up the matter again, citing concerns of causing a counter-controversy.” The board “stuck to its decision that the book was too dirty for young eyes.”
I’ll let you judge the book in question. Following is…
- A summary of The Dirty Cowboy taken from an article that appeared in School Library Journal
- a link to a Macmillan website where you can view illustrations in the book
- three videos on the subject of the book banning
- a list of honors and awards the book has received
Book Summary (SLJ)
The award-winning book tells the tale of a freckle-faced cowboy who decides to take his annual bath in a nearby river and asks his dog to guard his clothes. But the two get into fracas when the dog doesn’t recognize his fresh-smelling owner and refuses to hand over his clothes. The illustrations carefully conceal the cowboy’s private parts “while still keeping a G rating,” according to SLJ‘s review off the book.
The Dirty Cowboy illustrations
The Dirty Cowboy’s honors and awards include the following:
- Parents Choice Gold Medal
- Golden Kite Award (SCBWI – For Excellence in Picture Book Text)
- First Prize in the 2004 Marion Vannett Ridgway Awards
- International Reading Association 2004 Notable Book
- Bulletin Blue Ribbon (The Bulletin for the Center for Children’s Books)
- Finalist for the Spur Award (Western Writers of America)
- Finalist for Southeast Booksellers Association 2004 Book Award
- Nominated for Georgia Picture Book Award
Comments made by Amy Timberlake, author of The Dirty Cowboy, during an interview with Blogging Censorship:
If one or two parents can get books removed from a public library, where will it stop? Will there be any books left in the library? I tell you, everybody has opinions about books, and everybody has gotten offended now and again by a book. (If you haven’t, you’re not a reader.) It doesn’t mean the book shouldn’t be on the shelves.
Anyway, this is one of the reasons we hire people with special training to care for our libraries. Librarians have a process for choosing and buying books for everybody (and in the case of schools, these books also support the teachers’ curriculum).
It’s one thing to free shelf space because a book is not being checked out, but it’s quite another to have a well-used book banned because of the objections of a few parents…
Some Questions
- Do you think the illustrations of the cowboy’s partial nudity border on obscenity?
- Do you think a book should be banned from a public school library because the parents of one child object to it?
- Do you think that one or two people or an organization should have the right to impose their views of literature and art on others who may have different perspectives from theirs?
SOURCES
PA School District Bans ‘The Dirty Cowboy’ for Partial Nudity (School Library Journal)
A-C board to vote tonight on book ban (Lebanon Daily News)
‘The Dirty Cowboy’ author: Book ban ‘ridiculous’ (Lebanon Daily News)
COLUMN: Book ban is not community’s desire (Lebanon Daily News)
A-C residents complain about ‘The Dirty Cowboy’ ban (Lebanon Daily News)
American Library Association opposes ban of ‘The Dirty Cowboy’ (Lebanon Daily News)
U.S. News: School District Bans ‘The Dirty Cowboy’ Book (Newsy)
School districts shouldn’t ban books (Partiot-News)
Annville-Cleona School Board stays strong on decision to ban ‘The Dirty Cowboy’ (Partiot-News)
‘The Dirty Cowboy’ mess is about a lot more than one book (Patriot-News)
Nancy Eshelman: ‘Dirty’ pictures lead to banning of book about a bath (Patriot-News)
Pa. school board, parents spar over banning of Dirty Cowboy (First Amendment Center)
The So-Not-Dirty Cowboy Author Speaks (Blogging Censorship/National Coalition Against Censorship)
Letter to Members of the School Board Annville-Cleona School District (National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Booksellers Foundation)
Thanks LK…..
“It is perhaps a result of religon.”~Id707 [or vice versa…perhaps modern Patriarchal religion was a result of that…]
“I, on my part, was trying to deny the ultimate argument used by some: “it’s only natural, look at nature for proof”. ~Id707
>yes, I got that…..I wasn’t disagreeing with you, I was expressing disagreement with the current mode of unreasonable infliction of ‘standards’ in school and everydamn otherwhere as well these days…and your statement that we don’t know the hows whens or whys. Force in acquisition (especially of power but also ‘goods’) is the patriarchal contribution to society….the advent of force for acquisition is a misdirection of the creative impulse….and the source of war. It is not found in nature because animals are considered to be products of their instincts…humans are s (supposedly) the masters of theirs….
http://cristinabiaggi.com/page.php?go=23&sec=1
and the ‘coup’….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wstIBq2H0z8
with the advent of patriarchy came war…or vice versa, force over reason….and it is apparently gaining the upper hand in our current political (and societal arena as well…)
Dragons…btw…are ever so much more evolved than patriarchs… 😉
Good catch Lotta!
(Snark) Not all Republicans in the Michigan House are afraid of using words for lady-parts:
“Nurses Demand That Foster Apologize For Using Female Slur”
“State Representative yelled derogatory term at staffer on neighborhood street
The Michigan Nurses Association demanded today that State Representative Frank Foster (R-Petoskey) apologize for calling one of their staffers the “c word” during a visit to her neighborhood. The organization is asking House Speaker Jase Bolger to investigate whether action should be taken against Foster for his offensive conduct.
http://www.minurses.org/news-and-events/p/openItem/5318
Dance you fools, dance! Maybe the puppet master will reappear.
The puppet master has made an appearance, when do we get to hear the “fat lady” sing again?
My mother was a teacher, and probably among the 10 best teachers I have ever met in my life. She used to teach reading. She said, “If you don’t teach reading you can’t teach anything, and if you CAN teach reading, you CAN teach everything.” Unfortunately, it is still true (as it was when she taught in the public schools in the 50s, 60s and 70s) that kids get right through school without really becoming literate. Happens every day.
At least they can look at the dirty pictures. (Except in the braille books.)
In the ’80s we lived in a suburb of Pittsburgh, I served as president of the elementary schools PTA. We did many good works and one that I am very proud of was a program where we bought enough books that each student in the school could pick 3 books to own. We were able to do this twice a year for 3 years. When the books arrived we would have to separate them into age groups. Our PTA’s Vice Prez and I had a spirited argument about taking a certain book out of the lineup altogether. A story about a husband and wife pair of chickens. Her complaint was that hubby rooster was described as being…… HENPECKED. And every time she used the word henpecked she would whisper it! I had to leave the argument several times to keep from howling with laughter. She was a very sweet natured woman even if she did view HENPECKED as a “vile and sinful word” She didn’t understand why I didn’t view it as “vile and sinful” She would have fainted if she had known that I don’t consider the “7 words you cannot say on television” as vile and sinful. We compromised by sending a note home with each child telling the parents that if they didn’t like their childs choice of books they could return it and pick another from our reserves. This seemed a reasonable solution but she was still upset that some child would read an obscene word. I told her not to worry that 95% would never be read at all………. No book was ever returned. (probably 99% of the notes were never read. How does anyone ever get an education in this country????
Woosty,
You are welcome to read my scribbles as you like.
But in quick reply, you cite a coup, when was that???
At least we have that.
I, on my part, was trying to deny the ultimate argument used by some: “it’s only natural, look at nature for proof”. So I was not looking, just denying. The force of sexual acts etc are outside of my consideration, I was referring to animals that exist in family groups or herds, not the sex act itself, nor preliminaries. As for brutal reality, have you watched a starved wild cat give birth on a frozen porch, and knew that bringing it in and “saving” it from fate was no way out?
The golden rule doesn’t get much space nowadays. Glad you use it. I know where you are and respect you. Just hope you do the converse correctly. Glad for the attention.
Petition (from Daily Kos) to Mich legislator re legislating vaginas.
http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=161
Republicans ban Democrat for saying “vagina”
Michigan Republicans think it’s okay to legislate vaginas – but not talk about them. During a debate over one of the most restrictive anti-choice bills yet, Michigan state Rep. Lisa Brown read a letter from a voter that concluded, “Finally Mr. Speaker, I’m flattered that you are all so interested in my vagina, but no means no.”
In response, Republican Speaker of the House Jase Bolger banned Rep. Brown from speaking on the state House floor the next day.
Send Jase Bolger an email telling him that if he is uncomfortable with lawmakers using the word “vagina,” then he should stop legislating vaginas. (email can be edited)
Mike,
You get it. I do wish I had met a man like you many years ago. (sigh)
===================================
“I bet they use that word in some of the sex education or biology classes in the “dirty cowboy” school district.”
——————-
I suspect that the word used most frequently is “don’t”. Can’t you see self-righteous mom storming the school board to object to any discussion of vagina or penis? Oh, yeah, they call it sex education but it’s really, you know, pornography.
idealist707
1, June 17, 2012 at 12:57 pm
Men’s domination over women recede beyond the mists of historicity. Point, we don’t know how or why it began.
Looking for models in the animal world provides no parallels, not even in primates. Conclusion: We have no right by nature to dominate and mistreat women.
It is perhaps a result of religon.
———————————
Well, do we WANT to look for models in animals????
There are plenty…and .lots of animals are vicious in mating rituals…(most birds are lovely though….). I had a kitten that was held captive by a pack of toms, gangbanged and she hobbled home with a broken leg….
My pet rabbit got worried by a dog and aborted her litter….I saw a pet mouse become terrified and actually eat all of her babies…
But instinct in the wild is a terrible force for a reason. It has to overcome an even greater force to prevail. And even then survival is not a given…. But when we are dealing with a human ‘Society’ the repercussion of ‘instinct’ and ‘intuition’ and rote ‘religion’ are a far cry from either civil or social. Whether or not we are Humans deserving of an Eden or animals who behave more like jackals and insects is created in the laws and policies we adopt and enforce and in how we TREAT EACH OTHER. Whether or not you are ‘ religious’ is not the determinant to whether you understand the imperative..”Do unto others AS YOU WOULD HAVE them do unto you..”
And no, I don’t think that mens domination recedes beyond the mists of history….it is pretty well documented in history as being a ‘coup’ of sorts and more animalistic than human in nature….
going back to my garden now….
That was in logical nominal electoral terms, not reality.
Women support the anti-women positions and vote for them too.
If they united, feasible?, then they could become a powerful voting block. But it all was hypothetical,
as confirmed by the electoral mess we have.
So, am not asking the victims to right the wrongs imposed on them. Just hoping they could vote for themselves and not for the patriarchs.
“If women would unite” they could fix the problem that men have not even united in causing.
Why women can’t unite is a kind of challenge thrown up by many people who want to believe that the victims of an injustice bear responsibility to reverse the injustice. Ordinarily, that cannot be done. They would not have become the victims of the injustice if, at the outset, they had enough power to prevent that. So once the injustice is done, to expect them to acquire enough power to UNDO IT and reverse it, very unlikely.
Men’s domination over women recede beyond the mists of historicity. Point, we don’t know how or why it began.
Looking for models in the animal world provides no parallels, not even in primates. Conclusion: We have no right by nature to dominate and mistreat women.
It is perhaps a result of religon.
The right of the woman in Jewish religion in primacy over the foetus denies that, in that instance, and it is logical as explained by Malisha, in terms of the wife’s value to a marriage, including the children.
Only Malisha has so far touched upon the possible scenario of the “progress” we shall experience as the need for bodies are used to support the needs of society, not those of the people themselves. Too wide for me to comment.
My knowledge of sex began with reading Kinsey between the stacks at 13 years of age. One perons’s life is nothing other that just that, it proves nothing. But it did make me realize that women had needs and wished to have them satisfied.
Women have coped with that challenge, that of sexual satisfaction, for many years.
Now the challenge to women’s own bodies and life and health is made in contempt of SCOTUS and our duty to humanity. Nature has entrusted the fostering of a foetus to her. And the decisions are hers. For at no stage was the man a guaranteed supporting mate.
It seems to be so simple to these politicians; we do it because we can. And you can lump it if you can, “SIS”.
Comeuppance gets its just desserts, as they see it.
If women would unite they could fix the problem by 52 to 48.
“It’s about patriarchy for sure–but I think it goes even further than that. These people also want to have dominion over men who do not have the same beliefs as they do.”
Elaine,
I totally agree, but it is Father’s Day and I want to get to to other things with my family, so I didn’t fully expound on where I’m coming from. 🙂
“Then I re-read and realized something…you are one guy that gets it. I am going to share this with people and let them know that THIS is what a sexually mature man sounds like and that they actually DO exist!”
Woosty,
Coming from someone who I respect as much as I do you, you can’t possibly
know how good that makes me feel, especially today. The origins of my thinking the way I do come from my parents. They brought me up in a home that had no sexual repression in it. Sex was always an open topic in our home and my questions were always answered with openness, but also with a attitude from both my parents that sex was an act of mutual pleasure and love.
When I learned to read there were never any restrictions put on what I read and in fact at age 8 when the librarian tried to restrict my borrowing books to the “Children’s Section”, my mother came in and signed a form saying I was allowed to borrow ay book I wanted. The attitude towards women and indeed all people prevalent in my home was one of equality. Much of what I am that is good was taught to me by my parents.
Gene,
The religious right would have a field day with me! Then JT would denounce me ’cause I’d zap ’em all with dragon fire thus putting a crimp in their free speech.
(What to do with the head?)
Gene,
“Where are my dragons?”
Matt Johnson,
I didn’t get your question. You dare me to say penis? Why? Whose?
Mike Spindell
1, June 17, 2012 at 11:55 am
———————————-
So, I was going to respond (positively but with politicant in mind…) to some of what you wrote and then I re-read and realized something…you are one guy that gets it. I am going to share this with people and let them know that THIS is what a sexually mature man sounds like and that they actually DO exist! Also, that this is what a respectful human being who is capable of being in society and creating with mindfullness and responsibility (which is inclusive of the effects on others ) ‘feels’ like….
Thank you! Mike!