The Culture Wars Get Chick Lit-ed

Growing up, there were the books about sex that my mother gave me to read, such as “Just Like Ice Cream,” a harrowing tale about a teen who gives in to sex with her boyfriend (hint: it’s not just like ice cream) and winds up a pathetic pregnant loner, with no prospects of happiness again ever. At least that’s how I remember it. She also gave me books by Dr. James Dobson, a radical conservative Christian commentator who makes having pre-marital sex sound about as fun as chopping off all your limbs and shoving them down the garbage disposal.

And there were the teen-sex books I read on the sly, books like Judy Blume’s classic “Forever,” which she reportedly wrote after her daughter "asked for a story about two nice kids who have sex without either of them having to die." Blume exposed me and many other girls to a healthier, more honest portrayal of teen sexuality. For that we are all extremely grateful.

But as this piece on Alternet mentions (alas, as with this post, the real story is buried in a deserved but boring heap of praise for Blume) and Bookslut highlights, Blume’s books and those like hers are increasingly under fire from conservatives, the kind of people who burn books in the name of education and tell teens they can get AIDS from saliva. I wouldn't be surprised if WalMart refuses to sell "Forever," though I've never stepped inside a WalMart so I wouldn't know. (They have more lenient standards for their Web site.) I can guess all too well the sorts of books these censors might want to put in their place.

Learn more about banned books at the American Library Association’s Web site.