I attended a debate today at a library conference which pitted three teens against three adults (two published authors and one librarian) on the moot "That parents should censor their teen's reading". Instead of the rollicking jokey fun debate that I had been expecting it was a passionate debate which the participants had really thought about. A nice surprise.
The issue of censorship all came up for me, personally a few years back when I read Doing It by Melvin Burgess which a lot of people had come out against as it was a book abotu sex for teens that was quite explicit and had the main boys acting very badly (one sleeping with his teacher, one sleeping with as many girls as he could, etc). I read the book, intrigued by the vitriol and did find it a bit shocking, but the overall messages and storyline were good so I think of myself in favour of the book being available to teenagers, especially if they're thinking of having sex. (After the insight you get into the teenage male mind I think it would be a real motivator to practice abstinence!)
Then this year I saw a movie called Shortbus which I loved. However, it's not a movie I would want anyone under the age of about 20 to see. It's got a lot of sex in it and is very confrontational visually about all sorts of different kinds of relationship. I don't think anyone who hadn't had quite a lot of life experience would be able to truly understand the messages in it.
Lee and I were talking about it afterwards and I was wondering what I would have thought of the movie if I'd seen it at 18. I was a very different person at 18. I wasn't nearly as open minded, my world view was very small and I had no experience of people with different sexual preferences. I sincerely doubt I would have appreciated the movie (which promotes open mindedness just by the way) in the same way I did this year with all the experiences I have now had.
I don't endorse banning, and I think to an extent people should have the right to choose, but I do believe that some things are simply not appropriate for some people. That's where I am right now in terms of thinking about censorship of material that relates to sex but is not strictly 'pornography'.
Hope I made sense.
(this was finished and posted on Wednesday 15 Nov)
Posted by jenni at November 14, 2006 03:48 PM