The ongoing fight over book bans in Texas public schools essentially boils down to two arguments. One, that liberal school boards want to teach children to hate America, specifically white America. Two, that inclusion of books about LGBT themes has gone so far that schools are carrying literal queer pornography.
The latter point got me thinking about all the straight porn I had been exposed to in Houston schools when I was a kid in the ‘90s. To be clear, I am using conservatives’ definition of porn here, as in literally anything with nudity or an overtly sexual situation. That’s not the legal definition, but let’s work with it for the moment.
Like a lot of lonely neurodivergent kids, I spent as much time as possible in the school library reading, which included a lot of Stephen King. My middle school library had It, and no one batted an eye when I checked it out. It contains attempted child rape, masturbation, and the infamous child sewer orgy. No one complained about it being on the shelf.
Also in middle school, we had a lock-in that included a movie night. This was Aladdin, and have you ever gone back and watched the scene where Jafar chains up Jasmine and makes her serve him apples? It’s pretty much a straight bondage scene, including what seems a lot like a simulated money shot on her face. No one complained.
In high school, we were reading Romeo and Juliet, and our teacher brought in the 1968 film version to show us when we were done. Not only is there a post-coital scene between the two main actors, but Olivia Hussey exposes her breasts in it. I supposed our teacher could have showed us the Baz Luhrman version, but the scene is still there and Claire Danes is still nude, albeit from the back only. Either way, no one complained.
That same teacher later gave a copy of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale from the closet of approved school reading books. There’s a sex scene (you could call it a rape scene) in it, including the word fuck and some talk about semen. No one complained.
Titanic came out when I was in high school, and my theater class took a field trip to see it that involved parental approval and everything. That movie has two porn scenes. One in the back of a car, and another where one character draws another naked. Again, no one complained that we saw this.
Now, I believe that people were right not to complain because none of this is legally or reasonably defined as porn. They are small scenes that form the part of a greater work, not “solely” there to titillate as the legal wording goes. Were people aroused? I’m sure. We’re talking Kate Winslet here, but arousal does not equal pornography.
None of the queer books that have come under fire for Texas book bans are any different than these examples, some of which are still being used as teaching tools today. The only defining characteristic is that the intimacy is queer. Considering how tightly the “school choice” arguments are tied to radical Christianity, it’s pretty clear that it’s kids being exposed to queer romantic themes that is the problem, not porn.
LGBT relationships are being treated as inherently sexual and perverse in ways straight ones are not, and the hypocrisy is blatant whenever we pull back and look at how straight relationships have been shown to students for decades.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
