***WARNING***
Before you go any further - offensive material below. Proceed with caution.
Offered in the Young Adult section of your West Bend Community Memorial Library:
http://www.sharelibraries.info/uhtbin/cgisirsi/ufPGimOcsb/WESTBEND/107910244/5/0
Deal With It ! : a whole new approach to your body, brain, and life as a gURL
Esther Drill
Pocket Books
309 pages
Copyright 1999
MCMLS Call No. YA – 305.235 - Dri
Library Catalog Summary: None given
Library Catalog Subjects: Teenage girls- Life skills
1 copy available at West Bend Community Memorial Library in Non-fiction
- A large portion of the book deals with sex instruction for girls. A FCPS library catalog review says this book is the translation of a website into print and "..a good deal of the text is made up of outtakes from girls' online dialogues culled from the site.." The review states the book is "happily nonphallocentric" and discusses "topics and details that more conservative guides might skip."
Well, if it is more conservative than Hustler or Playboy, I would have to agree.
- The book describes oral sex, anal sex, group sex, masturbation, orgasms, sex toys including dildos and vibrators, homosexuality, bisexuality, and other sex topics. The book has specific instructions for different sex acts along with cartoon images and "advice" from girls taken from the website describing their own sexual experiences and viewpoints.
And this advice came from minors FOR minors? This book has sex acts? FOR MINORS?
- The front cover has a girl in a flasher raincoat facing away from the reader flashing. The next page has her flashing the reader in a bra, underwear and boots. The back cover contains a plug for the book from Francesca Block, an author of many controversial books.....
- “MASTURBATION playing with yourself jerking off whacking off spanking the monkey jacking off jilling off buttering the biscuit So you get turned on. What do you do about it? ..do it standing, sitting, or lying down. ..use.. fingers (TOO EXPLICIT) a helpful way to get acquainted with your body… everyone is her own first and most efficient sex partner.. no risk, no pressure. ..ultimate safe sex. ..vibrator.. fingers in my XXXX.. rub your XXX with an ice cube.. feels great afterward.. put your hands or a blanket.. between your legs, squeeze.. rock.. apply pressure.. rub in a circle.. do it hard and fast. ..Many people get turned on by watching other people touch themselves. masturbating together is a fairly popular activity among couples who have sex on a regular basis.. Some people don’t start masturbating until much later in life.. whatever feels good to you is the right thing to do.”
- “ORGASM the big ‘O’ (EXPLICIT) getting off getting your rocks off the little death.. undeniably great.. pleasure center is the xxxx .. manipulating and stimulating.. sexual intercourse-inserting a (BODY PART).. moving it in and out-doesn’t pay much attention to the clitoris.”
- “My boyfriend wants to (EXPLICIT) me,..”
- “Hand job… Just squeeze and (EXPLICIT)… usually when I give a hand job, it’s after we’ve been making out for a while and we’re starting to take off each other’s clothes off.. seems to drive him crazy.. when it comes to me giving him (EXPLICIT).. he usually just stimulates himself by (EXPLICIT).. when he is about to go, I.. take over..”
- “dry sex.. felt his (BODY PART) through his pants..”
- “going down on him giving (EXPLICIT) oral sex on a guy..
and it only gets worse. I figured if they can offer this book to our kids, I should be able to post it here, right? Wrong. It is much too pornographic for me to put any more excerpts here. If you aren't concerned about this material being offered to kids as young as 11, then this post is not for you.
But you don't have to take MY word for it.
http://www.librarypatrons.org/book.asp?ID=24
Somebody ELSE can step up to the complaint file on this one. Won't you please join me?
8 comments:
Well,
I do not see anything wrong with this book as long as it is in a section for young adults. We need to teach kids what the terms are and what goes on. I grew up with conservative kids and of the 10 girls that had babies before 18 none of knew how anything worked because telling us about sex, the lingo and masturbation was wrong. Until My friend Cindy got knocked up, she didn't know thst "Hiding the salami" would get you pregnant because her boy friend told her that it was not intercourse. Some of us were told you only get pregnant when you want to, etc.
You need to tell young adults what the hell is going on. Your out lok didn't work for Bristol Palin!
I agree with the last commenter. Books like this that are honest with teenagers (instead of preaching "DON'T"s) are so important to raising intelligent, healthy teenagers who understand the world and can make good decisions. Teen pregnancy, relationship abuse, highschool drop out: all of these things happen because teenagers are not educated about consequences and their options. This book teaches health issues in a way that speaks their language.
Why are orgasms and masturbation "explicit"? I guess you would prefer to raise teenagers who get to be 30 years old and never know anything about their bodies, health, or sex. Or worse, you'd rather raise teenagers who masturbate (because it's normal) but feel like there's something wrong with them for doing so, and live their entire teenage years in shame and guilt because they weren't educated about the fact that it's normal.
Anon. 1 and MF: I agree that preaching don't is not always an effective strategy. Important facts and informed choices are the very best way we can help our kids through the difficult teen years. Therefore, we are asking our library to supply both sides of this issue and provide more information, not less.
Anon. 2: A bit dramatic, aren't you?
This book is crude and teaches nothing but "how to's." I think that very few will agree with you in our community, but thank you for sharing your opinion.
The book was listed on the ALA's "Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers 2001 Top 10."
Likely as a result, a librarian bought the book for hundreds of New York City public schools. When parents found out, the books were removed:
City's Ed. Boobs, by Carl Campanile, NY Post, 13 October 2003.
"Embarrassed [New York City] Department of Education officials yanked an eye-popping book from 371 middle and high schools because it contains sexually graphic material - including crude street language - that somehow landed on the recommended reading list for students." "[T]he sexual primer was mistakenly put on the list of suggested classroom library books and was delivered to schools." "Parents were outraged."
Book banning is a really bad idea. Ask the Germans who lived under Hitler or any other culture in which the government attempted to control people's access to information and ideas.
Sexuality is a part of life. It's not dirty, filthy, shameful, or anything else. Books are the SAFEST place for teens to explore & understand sexuality, along with being able to talk with an honest adult. Parents have the reponsbility to inform their children about sexuality; libraries also have that responsibility, serving the needs & interests of the entire community. Not all parents want to keep their teens in the dark about their bodies. Some do. But those that do cannot be parents to the whole community, inflicting their "values" on everyone.
What began as an objection to GLBTQ fiction in the West Bend Library has now morphed into a full-blown witch-hunt. Put away your pitchforks and torches, and try to be the best parent you can be --- to your own children.
BTW, for a more loving & kind approach to gay teens, take a look at this editorial in the 3/26 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/41857137.html
Banning books is a bad idea. I would rather have teens informed than ignorant and getting pregnant. It is a public library and censorship should be reserved for private institutions where you cater to the special interests of a specific group. Leave my public library alone.
It really shouldn't be the library's discretion about what books should be banned and what our children should be reading and whatnot. It should be up to the parents to monitor what they want their kids to read, therefore the rest of us who don't care can get on with our lives and learn about important issues without a religious bias to barricade us from the truth.
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