The hashtag: #speakloudly
The idea: People speak out about book banning and censorship.
The background: On September 18th, a Missouri newspaper published an opinion piece by some fundamentalist Christian guy, who wanted some books removed from school curricula because they depicted some things he didn’t agree with. One of those books is Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, a novel about a teenage girl who has been date raped. Rape is upsetting! Therefore we must not let teenagers read about it! It’s a knee-jerk reaction that does a disservice to teenagers who have actually been raped. (Actually, his argument was even more disturbing, conflating rape with pornography, as if the book was written to titillate rather than expose and explore something many people need help dealing with.)
By September 19th, Anderson had posted to her blog urging people to write to school officials and other authority figures in the region. An English teacher from Indiana, Paul Hankins set up the hashtag, and conversations began happening all over Twitter and beyond.
Examples:
smolderingink I’d like to take a moment to thank Mr. Scroggins for directing my attention to SPEAK. I hadn’t read it and now I’m going to #SpeakLoudly
MsEstep From a student today, “They don’t hide the ugly stuff in history so why hide the ugly stuff in books? Life ain’t pretty.” #SpeakLoudly
missmarymax So many juvenile/ YA books assigned in lit classes marginalize or erase female voices and experiences. Defend the outliers. #speakloudly
Miss_Tammy Don’t want your kid to read a particular book? Fine. Don’t want any other kids to read it either? Not fine. #SpeakLoudly
melaniegoodman Speak is about a girl silenced by rape; book banning only silences more girls who lose the opportunity to see they aren’t alone #speakloudly
Participants: Of course, authors are getting on board to defend their trade. Librarians and school teachers, those tireless defenders of intellectual freedom, are sharing stories from their readers and students. And readers are chiming in.
Why I love it: There’s so many cool things going on here. Authors using Twitter to engage with their fans and supporters. The power of using social media for decentralized activism. Tweets are coming in from people who are donating the book to their local library or school. A coordinated book drop has been planned. Letters are being written. I love that the action is going beyond Twitter and the blogosphere (as Anderson herself points out, the people who need to hear this stuff are probably not reading it there) and into real world action. People complain about young people being politically apathetic, but young people are among the loudest voices here.
Most importantly, it’s got people talking about two really important issues: censorship in schools and teen rape survivors. The call for book banning is an attempt to silence marginalized voices (rape survivors), who will continue to be marginalized if they cannot talk about what happened to them. (In fact, that’s kinda the main point of the book. Talk about missing the point entirely, fundamentalist Christian guy.)
If you like this, you might also like: The upcoming Banned Books Week, aptly timed to start on September 25th, countering those attempted back-to-school purges (hashtag #bannedbooksweek). There’s also Canada’s Right to Know week, starting September 27th, if you are interested in our Freedom of Information laws.
