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Argued with a librarian in Texas about 'Gender Queer' last week
She said it was too explicit for teens... I said teens see worse on TikTok every day. But then I looked up the actual complaints and there's pages about oral sex that made me pause. On one hand I still think banning is wrong, but on the other hand I'm not sure 13 year olds need that level of detail. What makes a book cross the line for you... is it the content itself or just that someone complained?
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king.kevin7d ago
pages about oral sex that made me pause" yeah I mean I definitely wasn't reading that stuff at 13 unless you count the awkward sex ed video they showed us in gym class where we all just stared at the floor. Hard line though I still don't trust anyone telling me what I can read, even if the content makes me cringe a little.
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king.kevin7d ago
Right, because nothing says "awkward puberty" quite like a gym teacher fumbling through a VHS tape while everyone prays for a meteor to hit the school. I swear, I learned more about the birds and the bees from Mad Magazine's fold-out center pages than any health class, and at least those came with terrible jokes. My hardline is the same though, even if the content makes me want to crawl into a hole. If a 13 year old wants to read an encyclopedia entry about oral sex out of pure morbid curiosity, that's on them and their search history, not on some outside group deciding what's "appropriate." I'd rather have a kid stumble into weird, clinical facts than have them sneakily learn everything from whatever garbage their older cousin's friend whispers about on the bus.
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