What affect will sexually explicit Gossip Girl books have on young people?
If you think Gossip Girls on TV is racy, just wait until you read the books that inspired the series–featured in the youth section of America’s libraries.
One parent, Dixie Fechtel, in Leesburg, Florida was so outraged by the books, which depict sexual content and drug use, that she asked Leesburg Library Advisory Board to remove books from the youth-adult section of the Leesburg Library, according to the Daily Commercial.com.
“A parent or student walking into the youth section should not have to get something off the shelf as shocking as this,” said Fechtel. “There needs to be some sort of system to enable parents to check out those kind of materials for their children.”
The books could be placed in a separate section and labels attached to the cover of the book to let parents know that it contains objectionable material they may not want their child to read, Fechtel said.
Here is a Fox News Video of an interview with Fechtel.
“Only in Your Dreams: A Gossip Girl Novel,” is one of the books in the series. Here is a passage:
The King size bed was so big Blair had divided it up into four sections: one four sleeping, one for eating, one for watching TV and one for sex.
Fechtel has been challenging the books with no success since last August. Library Director Barbara Morse refused to move the books. She said the books are extremely popular and were placed in the appropriate section.
It seems odd to place the Gossip Girl series next to books like the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter and Eragon that are supposed to serve teenagers from 12 to 18.
Has sex become so rampant in the media that it has become acceptable for 12, 13 and 14-year-olds to read books like Gossip Girls?
Certainly teens could easily have access to the adult section with other sexually explicit work, but does that make it okay to cater these books to teens? Would you support moving the books to the adult section?
We should ask ourselves:
1. what we define as obscenity
2. what we define as obscenity for teens
3. what mechanisms of exerting power would be appropriate for censorship
4. and finally, whether these mechanisms of power won’t cause problems later on
Can we really accept the notions of propriety from a few as adequate guidelines for all?
Anchorage, Ak, has the answer to teen’s problems in learning about sex.
It’s their “Rent a Rape” program. For $250.00 a young couple will come to your teen party and demonstrate how how to have satisfying sex. It is popular for girls 16th Birthday parties. That does not leave out the teens who are functionally illiterate and cannot read. It does much for their self-esteem.
Personally, I think parents who promote that kind of thing at home, and promote it in libraries are just plain nuts. It’s their call, and not mine. So I really don’t care what in Hades they do. You think I am kidding about this? I am not.
Wow, I certainly hope that the majority of the apethetic people here don’t have kids. You look at a slippery slope, and instead of trying to keep your kids from sliding down it, you push them. You’ve evidently given up since “kids do worse already.” Do you wonder why STD and pregnancy rates aren’t going down? It’s because of this foolish attitude. It has little to do with “safe sex education,” kids have been force fed this for years and it’s not working. You sexualize kids at a young, tell them how to have sex, tell them it’s okay to have sex but only if you do it a certain way - knowing full well that they are at a notoriously irresponsible age, and then blame a lack of birth control and get on a soap box about necessary abortion. You only have yourselves and a liberal progressive philosophy to blame, not pro-life or abstinence only philosophies. Focus on the problem, not the symptoms.
This is an absurd thing to even debate. You pay lip service to the need of parents to do their job (which you are obviously NOT doing) and then take away any help that they are being given. The whole point of having children and teen categories is to help parents know that their kids aren’t going to get their hands on bad material that they are not mature enough for. But then you want to throw anything and everything into that category…By doing so you are inviting somebody else to undermine parental authority and PREVENT a parent from being a parent. A parent cannot read every book in the library, so let them get help. I guess we should just take the age restrictions off of strip clubs and porn shops and just tell parents to be parents. The hypocrisy I’m here is just ridiculous.
Wow, I certainly hope that the majority of the apethetic people here don’t have kids. You look at a slippery slope, and instead of trying to keep your kids from sliding down it, you push them. You’ve evidently given up since ”kids do worse already.” Do you wonder why STD and pregnancy rates aren’t going down? It’s because of this foolish attitude. It has little to do with ”safe sex education,” kids have been force fed this for years and it’s not working. You sexualize kids at a young, tell them how to have sex, tell them it’s okay to have sex but only if you do it a certain way - knowing full well that they are at a notoriously irresponsible age, and then blame a lack of birth control and get on a soap box about necessary abortion. You only have yourselves and a liberal progressive philosophy to blame, not pro-life or abstinence only philosophies. Focus on the problem, not the symptoms.
This is an absurd thing to even debate. You pay lip service to the need of parents to do their job (which you are obviously NOT doing) and then take away any help that they are being given. The whole point of having children and teen categories is to help parents know that their kids aren’t going to get their hands on bad material that they are not mature enough for. But then you want to throw anything and everything into that category…By doing so you are inviting somebody else to undermine parental authority and PREVENT a parent from being a parent. A parent cannot read every book in the library, so let them get help. I guess we should just take the age restrictions off of strip clubs and porn shops and just tell parents to be parents. The hypocrisy here is just ridiculous.
I am currently reading the Gossip Girl books. While I’ve only read through about four of them, I do have to say not everyone in the books has sex. In fact, through the 4th at least, Blair is still a virgin and while she thinks she wants to have sex, something keeps her from doing it. To me, that would reinforce to girls that it’s OK to wait if you are not totally ready. Bottom line, though, if anyone thinks that teenagers are not constantly talking about/worried about/curious about sex, they are wrong. I’d say the books are pretty accurate about the dominance of sex in teenagers lives. When I started reading the first book, I was shocked not by the subject matter, but by the fact that the subject matter was actually realistic!
So, according to -b, that means that Playboy and Penthouse should be able to be sold to a 7 year-old.
Freedom of Speech doesn’t actually apply here, since we are talking about parental righs/responsibility. A 10 year old kid doesn’t have the right to read any book that their parents don’t want them to. (If you don’t believe me search the Supreme Court records.) So what this issue is really about is whether or not libaries, like TV, radio, records, and so forth, should have some sort fo a rating system (like putting these books in the adult section) so that kids can check them out if given adult permission to do so.
No one is saying they can’t read the books. All they are saying is that there ought to be a rating system for them (which is also Constitutional, see the ratings on records as an example).
I appreciate your passion, as misplaced as it was. Now try commenting on the actual topic at hand…
Tim,
The problem is that if you start to move all books that someone might find objectionable for some reason to the adult section, you won’t have a teen/young adult section. Is sex the only objectinable material (how Ouritanical of us all)? Of is it drug use, bullying, magic, vampires…oh the list could go on and on.
Instead, parents who are so concerned should take an active interest in what they children are reading whether via library, bookstore, or internet. Do that and leave the rest of us alone!
There are exceptions, but if your kid goes off the rails, don’t blame a bunch of books, the parent needs to stop being stupid and actually start doing their job. And you know what, at least kids are reading, and come on, every 14 year old knows what sex is, their parents chose to ignore the truth. It’s sad for these kids, some parents are really responsible, and others waste their time blaming literature for their mistakes.
suzyjax,
Really? You have no problem categorizing any variety of sexually explicit reading material in the young adult category? Why have the section at all? You obviously think that the young adult category of books is silly and should just be in the general adult category.
Can’t you see that by putting smut in this category, you are actually tricking those parents that would be doing thier job. Parents shouldn’t have to worry that x-rated material is available under the category of young adult.
Go ahead and get whatever porn you want for your kids and leave the rest of us alone (silly comments are two way streets.)
I have worked at a public library for years now…and if all of the young adult books containing sex, drugs, or other objectionable themes were to be moved to the adult section there would be no young adult section…these themes are a part of the real world, and if you wish to shelter your children from such “filth” then you should be monitoring the books they are bringing home…this is strictly something that starts from the home and is not the libraries responsibility. If I have a 10-year-old checking out a Gossip Girl book I lend it to them as I would any other patron. Its the parents job not mine to be certain that their child can handle the content in the book.