Fun home prep #3

Books often challenge ideas and perspectives. Sometimes this happens indirectly even when it’s just a story involving controversial characters. There have been many attempts to remove these books or even prevent them from being read or discussed in class. These are books of course that usually show a dystopian future or sometimes even show a protagonist that is nontraditional to say the least. Fun Home has been attempted to be removed or at least not read as part of the course curriculum because some students are Christian. Some people use the excuse that because they’re Christian, they can’t even fathom reading a book that has two gay people in it. It’s not just an attempt at removing a book for disagreeing but the premise is that they disagree with the author’s and her father’s humanity as gay people. Even if I were to ignore the bigotry, I’d say it’s just a lazy attempt to get out of reading a book, especially in a University where you should have your views challenged. There was an article that a Duke student wrote where he talked about his opposition to the book. He mentions that he doesn’t disagree with reading books that include LGBTQ people, suicide or even Marx or other contraversial books but he does mind “pornography” in books because of Christianity. First off, the book is about as pronographic as naked Greek statues. The book isn’t pornographic just because it shows nudity. There are many Christians who don’t have complexes like that. Human anatomy and sex are real. I don;t see why he’s offended by it even if he is a Christian. It’s a memoir about someone’s experiences and they chose to talk about the body and sex as two parts of many about her grappling with her sexuality. It wasn’t made to be a playboy magazine and it isn’t one. Being Gay or a Lesbian isn’t a kink or pornographic. It’s an identity and is just as valid as being straight. Being LGBTQ is more than just sex and just because there’s a drawing of a woman masturbating in this book according to the author of the piece doesn’t make it pornographic because it’s a memoir about her father, experiences and coming to terms with her sexuality. To focus on the pornographic element though is I think lazy because it’s not and he’s either being intentionally obtuse or subconsciously by reducing this book to just pornography. I get the idea though of having a trigger warning for books like this because it does deal with suicide or things that are traumatic but I don’t like how he’s making himself out to be the victim because he has to read “titilating content.” That’s his fix and he has to deal with it. It’s a memoir and one of the few kinds of books where you can be graphic and detailed about your experiences. It’s meant to be provocative but it’s not meant to be sexualized in the way the author of the piece was doing.