San Antonio-area schools consider banning "Handmaid's Tale"

[villager]

Judson ISD considers removing controversial book from curriculum

Amanda Taylor
KNES 5 Eyewitness News


Some parents are calling "The Handmaiden's Tale" by Margaret Atwood sexually graphic, and now the Judson Independent School District superintendent wants it out of the curriculum.

However, some teachers say it should stay. "We've had some ripples over the last years on it but not to this extent," district spokesperson Sean Hoffmann said.

Eleventh-grade students at Judson High School have been reading it for the last 10 years.

"The district certainly does not want to censor our students from appropriate materials, but being a public school system, we can't turn a deaf ear to things and allow our students to be exposed to things the community may not uphold," Hoffmann said.

Atwood's book is about a lower class woman serving as a birthmother for the upper class.

<snip>

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA032006.book.kens.4638ba53.html

[Horse with no Name]

1. Of course they want it banned

It's their fricken playbook. Can't let the sheeples know how this is going to end.

[Zenlitened]

2. They want to ban it, because it's coming true.

'The Handmaids Tale' is a disturbing, dead-on-accurate indictment of everything the bush-republicans represent.

[Nikki Stone 1]

5. Exactly

NT

[Kazak]

6. But, San Antonio went to Kerry!?!

:shrug:

[Zenlitened]

12. Fundie nutbar bush-lovin' wanna-be fascists can be found...

... in every precinct.

Odds are, that's preceisely who has stepped forward with this little gem.

[NoPasaran]

16. This isn't San Antonio proper

Judson ISD covers some of the northeast suburbs, a pretty conservative, church-ridden area.

[Bridget Burke]

18. Judson ISD is a suburban district.

Still the article says that: A committee of English teachers, students and other parents, has voted to appeal that decision. They want this book to stay part of the advanced placement curriculum.

It'll now be in the hands of the school board, and it will meet on Thursday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m. to discuss it.

(Although my calendar says that March 22 is a Wednesday.)

[Ilsa]

20. Isn't Judson the ISD for alot of air force kids?

Judson HS Rockets and Wagner Thunderbirds?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

23. Yes, it is. I have thought often in the recent past about this book.

[Mythsaje]

3. I never thought of it as particularly explicit...

Frightfully prophetic, perhaps, but not explicit.

[villager]

4. explicit in what the GOP is up to

that, I think, is the real "problem" for them...

[demosincebirth]

13. You gotta laugh! All the stuff that teenagers do in back seats of cars

and other places, and they want ban that book?

[Bridget Burke]

19. You haven't studied it sufficiently!

...a Judson parent noticed more than the story line. She came forward citing the book's more than 60 sexual innuendos and other graphic descriptions.

I can just imagine her sitting there with her magic marker.

[Mythsaje]

26. Sexual innuendos...LOL

Spent any time around teenagers lately, lady? The book in question is child's play in comparison to the innuendo THEY throw around on a regular basis.

[lapislzi]

30. There are a couple of depictions of sex

...one of which can only be described as rape. Very disturbing...and should be REQUIRED READING.

[Mythsaje]

32. I probably skipped through those parts...n/t

I read it as part of a lit assignment and found a lot of it profoundly disturbing. I probably mentally glossed over the rape sequences.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

43. iirc there's about a paragraph and a half

in the whole book that made me blush just a little.

To be fair, I was reading it on the bus, surrounded by strangers....

[suffragette]

7. "Freedom from" in action.

Aunt Lydia would be proud.

[mondo joe]

8. "You can't read our strategic plan!"

[villager]

10. "give me that playbook!"

n/t

[Avalux]

9. Bwahaha. Then the kids go home and watch MTV -

and chat it up on My Space. :crazy:

[QuettaKid]

11. I have never read the book but heard plenty about it.

Can anyone offer a brief synopsis?

[im10ashus]

15. Here is a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid's_Tale

The Handmaid's Tale is a 1985 dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The novel explores themes of women in subjugation, and the various means by which they gain agency, against a backdrop of the establishment of a totalitarian theocratic state. Sumptuary laws (essentially, dress codes) play a key role in the form of social control in the new society.

The novel was completed while Atwood was a visiting professor in the English Department at the University of Alabama.

Dystopia
A revolution has taken place and the United States has become a dystopia. The Constitution has been abrogated, and a new order has been established: the Republic of Gilead. The Republic of Gilead is ruled through biblical propaganda and rigid enforcement of social roles. Most citizens have been stripped of their freedoms. All religions, except the official state religion, have been suppressed. Those who do not conform to the new societal norms are pressed into service as maids and personal servants or deported to "the colonies" (regions where pollution has reached toxic levels) — if they are lucky. Political and religious dissidents, abortionists, and homosexuals are executed and hung at "The Wall" for public display. The government has proclaimed martial law due to the destabilizing effect of "hordes of guerrillas" roaming the countryside, although the actual threat from the "guerrillas" may be greatly exaggerated.

In Gilead, many people are infertile for reasons explored only in the coda to the story. It is possibly due to the ecological disaster which has made parts of the country uninhabitable. Fertile women are forced to engage in sexual reproduction for the benefit of the upper classes. Lower class women who cannot reproduce are exiled. Although men may also be infertile, it is fundamental to the Gileadan power structure that they be beyond reproach. According to the state, the problem is not with the men, it is always with the women. Women who cannot conceive after their third placement are deemed barren, and sent to the dreaded colonies with all the other "Unwomen" - resulting in many genuinely fertile Handmaids seeking to impregnate themselves using alternative methods. For example, when Offred goes to visit the Doctor, he offers to "do the job" for her. Similarly, Serena Joy setting up Nick with Offred, so that she may conceive, and produce a child for Serena Joy and her husband (and thus save Offred, though Serena isn't concerned with Offred's safety).

cont'd...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid's_Tale

[Flirtus]

17. and a cliff notes link

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-122,pageNum-7.html

[MADem]

14. Way to go, "some parents!!!!"

Your little dimwit kid who spells cat k-a-t will now be encouraged to learn to read!!! This action will likely bite them in the butt...

The surest way to get someone interested in something is to forbid them from getting anywhere near it!

[Nutmegger]

21. Blessed be the womb

Maybe if some of the parents read it, they might get something out of it. They will at least sympathize with those who created the Republic of Gilead.

[maveric]

22. First they'll ban the books, then they'll burn them.

Does this scenario look familiar to you?

[Strelnikov_]

24. "About A Lower Class Woman Serving As A Birthmother For The Upperclass"

Another high point in journalism.

[Fleshdancer]

25. Good. Maybe the students will now be curious enough to read it

I just don't get it. People will buy their teenagers the most graphic, violent video games but they get concerned about exposing their hormone hounds to the concept of sex...something I'm sure they've NEVER thought about before. :eyes:

[villager]

36. it is time to donate copies to local libraries in that area...

...then alert the press that you've done so, and the books will now be made more publicly available!

[Fleshdancer]

37. oooh, great idea! n/t

[Initech]

27. Ah the good ol' American Taliban at it again!

Not able to handle the truth, are we?

[Coastie for Truth]

28. Prediction of the Bush Theocracy

Note: Check out Kevin Phillips' "American Theocracy : The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century", and Esther Kaplan's "With God on Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy, and Democracy in George W. Bush's White House", and "The Twilight of Democracy: The Bush Plan for America" by Jennifer Van Bergen, and "The Republican War on Science" by Chris Mooney - to see where I am coming from and going.

I read Handmaids' Tale as a science fiction thriller about what a runaway Bushite world would be like - populated by people like Bill Frist and Randall Terry and John Ashcroft and the oligarchs and the fundies.

My recollection was that there was a movie based on this book.

[villager]

40. there was -- Robert Duvall was in it.

I recall that it wasn't great -- unlike, say, the current adaptation of "V for Vendetta."

Maybe it's time for a remake.

[The Stranger]

29. It is REQUIRED READING for any progressive.

It is about a THEOCRATIC DYSTOPIA and foreshadows the U.S.

[ptolle]

31. fine, but

As much as I'm philosophically opposed to any action of this sort on the practical real-life side I'd say fine let them ban it in the schools and then watch the circulation stats on the book skyrocket at local libraries and sales on Amazon and other net booksellers.I have to say i'm continually amazed at the notion that you can ban an idea, or put the genie back in the bottle.Sorry folks all you'll do with this is make the book and its ideas all the more attractive because it's forbidden.If anybody needs another real world demonstration of the law of unintended consequences I'd say this is the perfect setup for it.

[Vektor]

33. The Bible has very sexual references in it too. Do the fundies want to ban

that too? :shrug:

I guess if you mix a little Jesus with your sodomy, it's ok.

[knitter4democracy]

34. Aw, crap. It's still happening.

When I taught high school (AP English, no less), I got in trouble for teaching Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon ("racist against whites" and "too sexual" were the two most common complaints), Shakespeare, Lord of the Flies, and pretty much everything. Every book was up for attack, even Jane Eyre.

What it really came down to was that anything the kids thought was hard was presented to the parents as problematic. The kids knew exactly what to say to get their parents upset, and their parents fell for it every time. I know this because I did some digging around and found out the truth (as opposed to my principal, who swallowed everything the kids said as the gospel truth).

I'm sure that's what's happening here--it's not the easiest book to read, so it's got to go. :eyes:

[Nikki Stone 1]

38. So, we should give the kids "My Pet Goat"?

That way, they can dumb all the other kids down, too.

[Finder]

35. "The Handmaid's Tale "could become reality.

I would have disagreed in the past but with strict morality being such a top priority for many on the left and right these days, I shudder.

If anybody had told me even some self-described liberal feminists would one day share the same views on sexuality as the religious right wing, I would have laughed. One look at a thread on exotic dancers or actresses that dare bare all or a parent hiring a stripper for a young man's 16th birthday party will open your eyes.

Human sexuality has become a sin unless it is portrayed or performed only under strict regulations put forward by both ideologies which often agree on many points.

Notice the reason they want it out...the SEX. Not the threat of theocracy, not the threat of tyranny, not the threat of patriarchy, but the freaking SEX.

[womanofthehills]

39. Margaret Atwood's books

I've read most of Margaret Atwood's books but I just couldn't finish "The Handmaidens Tale". Guess I'll try again.
My favorite book of hers is "Surfacing" - one of her earliest books. It's a strange interesting tale.

[Nutmegger]

41. It's definitely apropos now in this political climate

Welcome to DU!

[farmboxer]

42. Outlawing books, is something fascists do.......

"A Handmaid's Tale", too much truth for the facists idiots!

Have they outlawed "1984" yet?

"Rising Storm", haven't seen that one for a very long time. A movie that must have been written by a psychic!

[CornField]

44. 11th graders wouldn't know a damn thing about "sexually graphic" material

They just spend hours watching breasts and buttocks bounce across the MTV screen... noticing how dead women on CSI and Law and Order are treated more as objects than as a person... reading free erotica and sensationalized fan fiction on the internet (did you know Harry Potter boinked Ginny?)... teasing girls in the school system when their breasts start to develop and/or teasing boys in their school system when the facial hair starts to grow...

Yeah, they don't know nothing about 'sexually graphic' material. It's better if they're only allowed to play violent video games and go see movies which glorify war and oppression.

... the elections were about America's 'moral values' after all...

[villager]

45. well, God approves of violence. "Bodies" -- and touching --

those nasty "erotic" things -- were just a cosmic oversight...