It’s National Library Week, so I’ve been thinking a lot about knowledge and the idea that knowledge should be readily available – for all. An informed populace is crucial to the health of the nation and a bulwark of democracy. The ability to think, to reason, to avoid being fooled, all these notions are tied to reading and easy access to the wisdom of the ages.
And this is exactly why libraries – and their contents – are under siege these days.
HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery recently told readers:
“Librarians are living in constant fear. They have become the targets
of Republican politicians and far-right groups like Moms for Liberty
Liberty that are hellbent on burning books about LGBTQ+ people,
people of color and racism. Some librarians are quitting their jobs
because of constant harassment; others are getting fired for
refusing to clear shelves of books that conservatives don’t like.”
If that’s not bad enough – and it is – Bendery informs us there’s another evil twist in the tale: “The GOP’s censorship campaign has shifted from book bans to legislation threatening librarians with jail time.” Idaho’s tried several times to enact such legislation; this February, West Virginia passed a bill “making librarians criminally liable if a minor comes across content that some might consider obscene.” Idaho, Iowa, Alabama, and Georgia are also considering various means of keeping books they don’t like off the shelves...and they’re not alone.
The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom shared some frightening statistics: “The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries increased by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges in 2023; school libraries saw an 11% increase over 2022 numbers.”
Given these ever-more-frequent, ever-more-strident attacks, what can a concerned reader do to stem the tide of book-banning?
PEN America, an organization whose mission “is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible,” offers a number of ways to make one’s voice heard. Whether you’re a student, a parent, an author, or a librarian, PEN America provides advice, assistance, and resources to keep you informed and ready to push back.
The need to support the nation’s libraries is more urgent than ever. In Bendery’s HuffPost piece, American Library Association President Emily Drabinski draws a chilling conclusion: “What gets lost in conversations about book banning is that it’s really about eliminating the institution of the library, period. It’s not about the books. Well, it is about the books, but the books are the way in to gut one of the last public institutions that serves everyone.”
“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture,” Ray Bradbury once said. “Just get people to stop reading them.”
Bradbury was one of the 20th century’s finest fabulists, the author of The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the worldwide blockbuster Fahrenheit 451. Published in 1952, the novel Fahrenheit 451 is set in a future where books are illegal and firemen don’t put out fires – they start them. Printed matter is what they burn.
Bradbury was writing in the tense, paranoid early years of the McCarthy era. But he might as well have penned those words last Thursday.
Support your local library. Speak up for the voices the hate-mongers would shut down. Before – as history’s proven again and again – they try to shut down yours.
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Students fight a book ban by giving away free banned bookswww.youtube.com
The New York Public Library has also weighed in on the matter, you can find its suggestions here.
The History Of The Bechdel Test, And What It's Actually Measuring
The lesbian experience can be isolating. Comic artist and lesbian, Alison Bechdel began publishing her comic strips in gay and lesbian magazines and newspapers starting in 1983.
Dykes to Watch Out For followed the lives of a cast of mostly queer characters, their friendships, and a mix of “high and low culture - from foreign policy to domestic routine, hot sex to postmodern theory.”
Along with the 2006 bestselling graphic novel, Fun Home - which inspired the Tony-award-winning play of the same name - Bechdel’s most famous work is her comic, The Rule. The strip debuted in 1985, depicting a fictionalized conversation with her friend, Liz Wallace.This became known as The Bechdel Test.
A movie:
- Has to have at least two women in it who
- Talk to each other about
- Something else besides a man
One character reveals that the last movie that satisfied these requirements was Alien, which premiered 6 years earlier.
The term gained popularity in the 2010’s, with a major peak in November 2017, when it was revealed that for the first time, a majority of television programs were satisfying the rules of the test.
Regarding the comic's fame, Bechdel said, “Somehow young feminist film students found this old cartoon and resurrected it in the Internet era and now it’s this weird thing…People actually use it to analyze films to see whether or not they pass that test. Still . . . surprisingly few films actually pass it.”
It’s become a shorthand over time to define if a film is “feminist” or not. But that’s not what Bechdel was intending.
The Bechdel-Wallace test gauges female representation rather than any specific female interpretation.
Bechdel and Wallace just wanted to see some women onscreen who have inner lives!
The lesbian experience can be isolating. It’s not asking too much for blockbuster films to feature female characters whose every frame doesn’t revolve around men. Using the test to define whether a film is feminist or not isn’t fair to feminism, the movie industry, or Alison Bechdel. If a movie passes the test, it can still be a misogynist wreck. And there are plenty of films with explicit feminist messages that don’t necessarily satisfy the rules.
Still, it’s wild how low the bar is, and how few films will pass the test. Particularly now, since the test is a widely known part of popular culture. And it can be resolved with just a brief conversation. A quick glance at 2022’s films have about half passing the test.
Other tests have popped up in its honor, like the Duvernay test intending to measure racial diversity. There’s the Mako Mori test, inspired by a character in Pacific Rim. Although her actions fail to pass the Bechdel test, Mako has a satisfying narrative arc. Finally, there was the Fire Island controversy, where a white woman called out the film for failing to pass the Bechel Test; an unfair callout for a cast of queer Asian characters, who are underrepresented in Hollywood.
Bechdel herself chimed in.
Okay, I just added a corollary to the Bechdel test: Two men talking to each other about the female protagonist of an Alice Munro story in a screenplay structured on a Jane Austen novel = pass. #FireIsland #BechdelTest
— Alison Bechdel (@AlisonBechdel) June 8, 2022
And as more women and people of color get cast in active, engaging, and inclusive roles, these tests will keep evolving. Our films and series must strive for diversity in terms of race, gender, and LGBTQ+ stories. Because we deserve original stories, true to all walks of life.