TIL my local library banned 'The Handmaid's Tale' back in the 90s for being anti-family

I was digging through old newspaper archives at the public library in Portland last month and found a 1992 article about a school board meeting where parents argued that Atwood's book was too radical for teens. They said it would make kids question traditional gender roles. I'm siding with the critics on this one - isn't that exactly the point of reading? Has anyone else found weird bans from their hometown that seem silly now looking back?

2 comments

2 Comments

miam1116d agoMost Upvoted

Isn't it funny how banning something usually just makes more people want to read it?

grant.jason15d ago

Back when my high school banned that one book, everyone and their brother was suddenly passing around photocopied pages in the hall... I'd never even heard of it before, but suddenly I had to know what was so dangerous about it. Ended up reading the whole thing under my covers with a flashlight, just to see what the fuss was about. So yeah, the whole forbidden fruit thing works way better than any librarian ever could.