School Censorship-Part 1
11th grade came time for us to read Shakespeare's Macbeth. I was in the office when the shipment of brand new books arrived. The next day, our English teacher announced that the books were not ready yet. "Oh, I thought I saw some in the office the other day," I suggested. "Yes, they're HERE, but they're just not READY," she informed us.Later that week, I found myself in the office again. I walked in and laughed. Two women sitting at the desks, sharpees in hand, systematically turning pages and crossing out selected lines in our books. The stack of completed "censored" books grew, and it dawned on me that the cover was mismatched. A closer look revealed that the cover photo had been covered with some opaque contact paper.
"Are you censoring our books?" I asked, rhetorically. "I don't get it: if it's not good for us to see it once, why is it better for you to read it so many times as you cross it out? How do you feel about the fact that they are making you read something inappropriate?" They confessed that they didn't understand it either, but they were merely following directions.
The next week, we finally received our copies of Macbeth. "Oooooh my Gosh...." my classmates murmured, as they effortlessly peeled off the contact paper covers and rolled their eyes at the mild picture of a man and woman leaning on one another. We finally understood why our books had arrived but were not "ready."
As we progressed in the book, we found our marked-up paragraphs. We laughed as the girls whose books hadn't been perfectly censored read the paragraph aloud. They got help from the girls who simply held their books up to the light to reveal the forbidden text.
Now, I see that their intentions were good. But think about it this way--if they wouldn't have put some contact paper over a mild PAINTING of a woman leaning on a man, (not even kissing or anything) nobody would have noticed or cared. If they wouldn't have used a [see-through] marker to cross out mildly sexual content, we would have either skipped it in class (and gone to read it on our own-or simply forget about it), or just read it casually and get over ourselves. Get over the fact that we live in America. If we want to have a secular education, and read Shakespeare, that's what comes along with it. Come on. I think they took this trip a little too far. They called more attention to it by doing what they did!
Also, for the girls who were rebellious and resentful of the school-it only helped them form these negative thoughts toward the school for restricting them. They already feel like they are stifled by not being able to wear anything they like, go anywhere they want...this does not help the situation.
posted by Michelle @ 6:52 PM
25 Comments:
yea i never could figure out why all the censorship its not porn or anything so how much mildly sexual contents do we see anyway daily on the street whats the big deal if we see it in a book too?
Love your blog.
Your writing is so fresh.
JG
The more you say dont eat the chocolate, dont eat the choc, the more ppl will, its human nature.
Thats why diets that encourage healthy eating in moderation are much more effective than those that make you live on lettuce and fatfree cottage cheese..
All the more so, with sensual matters..
I agree with semgirl, I think the diets that say eat in moderation are the most effective.
I remember when I was school if something was censored it just made me want to see why it was censored. It's like someone saying, "Don't look to your right". Inevitably, immediately afterwards everyone looks right.
The irony- the language itself is probably obscure enough that most people wouldn't notice. but for the sake of prefect transparency, there is a line from Othello that still echoes in my mind...
the saddest part of it all, is everyone seems to agree, that it really isn't a big deal.
I hear a lot of resentment in most of the comments. I think the total disdain for censorship stems from other issues with one's school etc. In truth, it is the school's responsibility to ensure that students are not exposed to anything inappropriate. Parents trust their children to the school, and that trust must be well placed. As one who tries not to expose himself to these type of things, I would have been quite upset if I had avoided it all along, and then my school of all people, which is supposed to be a safe haven amidst our sick world, exposed me to it. Whether rational or not, if a school is a "frum" one and touts certain values, it is their job to censor.
I'll play Devils Advocate here...
If you censor that mild picture..then if you want to feel "naughty" or "rebellious" you'll satisfy yourself by looking at the mild pictures.
In other words you're highering the bar...true people will look..but if that's what's considered naughty than ..that's good news.
D
I see both sides of the argument. But in terms of what David said, the way I think about it is the girls are going to be looking for naughty pictures, this is not going to cut it for them. Either way, they'll seek more. As for the girls who sincerely find it inappropriate, they just won't look it again.
Now, as for the argument that it's the school's job. That was actually mentioned in the discussion that inspired this piece. Here are some options:
1) don't teach it all, 2)get us a different edition (like another school did), 3)skip around randomly --and don't say,"we're going to skip this because it's inappropriate"--IDIOTS!---or 4)simply come to terms with the fact that if you're gonna claim to give a superior secular education, your students will read all of macbeth.
Michelle-what is the big deal?!?!? If someone does not want to expose themselves to it, they will appreciate the school's censorship and will NOT rip off the cover or overexert themselves to read through marker. If you want to do that, that's your problem. Why can't they teach Macbeth-a classic piece of literature which one would be considered ignorant should he not have read it-and remove the inappropriate lines-of which there are a few? And since when does exposure to inappropriate lines constitute a superior education?
Michelle-in response to your options:
1) A-Macbeth is required reading for anyone who wants to consider himself somewhat educated.
B-Unfortunately, in the world we live in, it is very difficult if not impossible to find completely clean literary works. Sadly, Macbeth is one of the better ones. Schools have a hard time when it comes to finding educational literature that is approprate. Would you rather read "The Spiders Web?"
2) Sometimes, finding another edition just doesn't work out. Whether it's price, or availability, a school is not wrong to expect that its students will be mature enough to appreciate their censorship. And like you said-it's not like the cover had anything REALLY inappropriate.
3)What do the few inappropriate lines have to do with a superior education?!?!?
I can see where the school is coming from. They're in a tough spot, because you don't want the serious parents complaining about the material (it is, after all, bais yaakov), so they do it to avoid the sfaykus. The ideal would be to acquire mosdos press books, which have been sensored.
Jeez...I take back the option of not reading it at all. My point was to show the pointlessness of crossing out mildly explicit content. FYI-if the marker was running out of ink by the time they got to us, there was no exertion required. Try white- out,people.
ok elster-so name me some literature that is cleaner than Macbeth (and of the same literary quality)? And i still don't get why everyone is so hung up on reading the whole thing. It's not like you lose a major part of the plot if you cross out some inappropriate lines. What is this whole obsession with reading every line?
"Cleaner than Macbeth but of the same literary quality? Well again, it's all opinion... How about To Kill A Mockingbird?"
elster, u obviously never read to kill a mockingbird or maybe u just forgot that the ENTIRE book is about a guy on trial for..RAPE
mockbeth is kosher besides for (if u wanna be REAL picky) lady macbeth's mention of nursing a baby at her breast and1 or 2 other eqaually harmlesss references.
Elster-you remind me of a parable where a woman visits the Louvre, and as the tour proceeds she loudly criticizes each work of art. The tour guide then informs her that these paintings, on display at the Louvre, are no longer on trial. They are known to all as the greatest paintings of all time. The only thing that is on trial is the visitors who may or may not appreciate the paintings' greatness. He then turned to the lady and told her that she failed her test miserably. So, elster-shakespeare is uncontestably one of the greatest playwrights. If you disagree, that is your problem.
As for reading every word-firstly, it CANNOT be compared to the torah because those are holy words and each letter has untold significance. Lihavdil, Shakespeare can be understood quite well if one would skip a couple of lines. Don't tell me you lose the whole plot when you skip two lines?
oy..let's move on to part 2 already...lol
Let's be realistic. We found about Sex before 6th grade. We (BY) all saw movies in the home, outside of the home, with our parents, with out... Is Macbeth really oging to make a difference to our (already) twisted minds? I didn't think so. Your BY was worse than mine though, they would have NEVER been able to get away with censoring books...parents might complain bout the lack of honest literary education! But then again, parents complain about e/t nowadays wen it comes to schools...
Good Point as usual love.. Have a g'nite
"they should have used whiteout"
Is your problem with the fact that they censured or that they didn't censure well??
lets move on to censorship part2
It might seem childish but the school does not want to feel as if they are condoning a picture of a man touching a women or some words in the book. The school is not concerned if the students see the picture or peek through the witeout at the words, they don't want to be "giving" the students such a picture or words.
That's the most logical answer offered so far.
hypocricy:The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
The school belives that a man should not be seen touching a woman;therefore the school does not "give" such pictures to its students. The school does not believe that any harm will come to the students if they peek through and see a picture of a man touching a woman.
Personally, as much as I thought that covering the cover of the books was stupid, I wouldn't have wanted to go walking around carrying the book with that picture on the cover. I don't see why it would've been so hard to find another book altogether, but that's another story. I think that most of the girls, after they took that first curious peek, covered it back up again & forgot about it(Except for you!) I definitely agree that crossing out those sentances was stupid. Half of the girls in our class wouldn't have understood it anyway. We didn't read every single sentance & page in the book(so much for a proper literary education), so they could've just skipped out those parts also.
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