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villager Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:31 PM
Original message
San Antonio-area schools consider banning "Handmaid's Tale"
Judson ISD considers removing controversial book from curriculum

Amanda Taylor
KNES 5 Eyewitness News


Some parents are calling "The Handmaiden's Tale" by Margaret Atwood sexually graphic, and now the Judson Independent School District superintendent wants it out of the curriculum.

However, some teachers say it should stay. "We've had some ripples over the last years on it but not to this extent," district spokesperson Sean Hoffmann said.

Eleventh-grade students at Judson High School have been reading it for the last 10 years.

"The district certainly does not want to censor our students from appropriate materials, but being a public school system, we can't turn a deaf ear to things and allow our students to be exposed to things the community may not uphold," Hoffmann said.

Atwood's book is about a lower class woman serving as a birthmother for the upper class.

<snip>

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA032006.book.kens.4638ba53.html

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Horse with no Name Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:32 PM
Response to Original message
1. Of course they want it banned
It's their fricken playbook. Can't let the sheeples know how this is going to end.
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Zenlitened Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:33 PM
Response to Original message
2. They want to ban it, because it's coming true.
'The Handmaids Tale' is a disturbing, dead-on-accurate indictment of everything the bush-republicans represent.

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Nikki Stone 1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:37 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. Exactly
NT
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Kazak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:38 PM
Response to Reply #2
6. But, San Antonio went to Kerry!?!
:shrug:
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Zenlitened Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:41 PM
Response to Reply #6
12. Fundie nutbar bush-lovin' wanna-be fascists can be found...
... in every precinct.

Odds are, that's preceisely who has stepped forward with this little gem.
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NoPasaran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:45 PM
Response to Reply #6
16. This isn't San Antonio proper
Judson ISD covers some of the northeast suburbs, a pretty conservative, church-ridden area.
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Bridget Burke Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:46 PM
Response to Reply #6
18. Judson ISD is a suburban district.
Still the article says that: A committee of English teachers, students and other parents, has voted to appeal that decision. They want this book to stay part of the advanced placement curriculum.

It'll now be in the hands of the school board, and it will meet on Thursday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m. to discuss it.


(Although my calendar says that March 22 is a Wednesday.)


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Ilsa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:52 PM
Response to Reply #18
20. Isn't Judson the ISD for alot of air force kids?
Judson HS Rockets and Wagner Thunderbirds?
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OmmmSweetOmmm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:58 PM
Response to Reply #2
23. Yes, it is. I have thought often in the recent past about this book.
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Mythsaje Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:36 PM
Response to Original message
3. I never thought of it as particularly explicit...
Frightfully prophetic, perhaps, but not explicit.
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villager Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:37 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. explicit in what the GOP is up to
that, I think, is the real "problem" for them...
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demosincebirth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:42 PM
Response to Reply #4
13. You gotta laugh! All the stuff that teenagers do in back seats of cars
and other places, and they want ban that book?
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Bridget Burke Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:50 PM
Response to Reply #3
19. You haven't studied it sufficiently!
...a Judson parent noticed more than the story line. She came forward citing the book's more than 60 sexual innuendos and other graphic descriptions.

I can just imagine her sitting there with her magic marker.


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Mythsaje Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 03:04 PM
Response to Reply #19
26. Sexual innuendos...LOL
Spent any time around teenagers lately, lady? The book in question is child's play in comparison to the innuendo THEY throw around on a regular basis.
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lapislzi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 03:39 PM
Response to Reply #3
30. There are a couple of depictions of sex
...one of which can only be described as rape. Very disturbing...and should be REQUIRED READING.
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Mythsaje Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 03:52 PM
Response to Reply #30
32. I probably skipped through those parts...n/t
I read it as part of a lit assignment and found a lot of it profoundly disturbing. I probably mentally glossed over the rape sequences.
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Viva_La_Revolution Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-22-06 01:47 AM
Response to Reply #3
43. iirc there's about a paragraph and a half
in the whole book that made me blush just a little.

To be fair, I was reading it on the bus, surrounded by strangers....
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suffragette Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:38 PM
Response to Original message
7. "Freedom from" in action.
Aunt Lydia would be proud.
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mondo joe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:38 PM
Response to Original message
8. "You can't read our strategic plan!"
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villager Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:39 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. "give me that playbook!"
n/t
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Avalux Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:39 PM
Response to Original message
9. Bwahaha. Then the kids go home and watch MTV -
and chat it up on My Space. :crazy:
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QuettaKid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:40 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. I have never read the book but heard plenty about it.
Can anyone offer a brief synopsis?
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im10ashus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:45 PM
Response to Reply #11
15. Here is a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid's_Tale

The Handmaid's Tale is a 1985 dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The novel explores themes of women in subjugation, and the various means by which they gain agency, against a backdrop of the establishment of a totalitarian theocratic state. Sumptuary laws (essentially, dress codes) play a key role in the form of social control in the new society.

The novel was completed while Atwood was a visiting professor in the English Department at the University of Alabama.

Dystopia
A revolution has taken place and the United States has become a dystopia. The Constitution has been abrogated, and a new order has been established: the Republic of Gilead. The Republic of Gilead is ruled through biblical propaganda and rigid enforcement of social roles. Most citizens have been stripped of their freedoms. All religions, except the official state religion, have been suppressed. Those who do not conform to the new societal norms are pressed into service as maids and personal servants or deported to "the colonies" (regions where pollution has reached toxic levels) — if they are lucky. Political and religious dissidents, abortionists, and homosexuals are executed and hung at "The Wall" for public display. The government has proclaimed martial law due to the destabilizing effect of "hordes of guerrillas" roaming the countryside, although the actual threat from the "guerrillas" may be greatly exaggerated.

In Gilead, many people are infertile for reasons explored only in the coda to the story. It is possibly due to the ecological disaster which has made parts of the country uninhabitable. Fertile women are forced to engage in sexual reproduction for the benefit of the upper classes. Lower class women who cannot reproduce are exiled. Although men may also be infertile, it is fundamental to the Gileadan power structure that they be beyond reproach. According to the state, the problem is not with the men, it is always with the women. Women who cannot conceive after their third placement are deemed barren, and sent to the dreaded colonies with all the other "Unwomen" - resulting in many genuinely fertile Handmaids seeking to impregnate themselves using alternative methods. For example, when Offred goes to visit the Doctor, he offers to "do the job" for her. Similarly, Serena Joy setting up Nick with Offred, so that she may conceive, and produce a child for Serena Joy and her husband (and thus save Offred, though Serena isn't concerned with Offred's safety).

cont'd...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid's_Tale
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Flirtus Donating Member (500 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:46 PM
Response to Reply #15
17. and a cliff notes link
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MADem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:45 PM
Response to Original message
14. Way to go, "some parents!!!!"
Your little dimwit kid who spells cat k-a-t will now be encouraged to learn to read!!! This action will likely bite them in the butt...

The surest way to get someone interested in something is to forbid them from getting anywhere near it!
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Nutmegger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:54 PM
Response to Original message
21. Blessed be the womb
Edited on Tue Mar-21-06 02:56 PM by Nutmegger
Maybe if some of the parents read it, they might get something out of it. They will at least sympathize with those who created the Republic of Gilead.
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maveric Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 02:57 PM
Response to Original message
22. First they'll ban the books, then they'll burn them.
Does this scenario look familiar to you?
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Strelnikov_ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 03:01 PM
Response to Original message
24. "About A Lower Class Woman Serving As A Birthmother For The Upperclass"
Another high point in journalism.
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Fleshdancer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 03:02 PM
Response to Original message
25. Good. Maybe the students will now be curious enough to read it
I just don't get it. People will buy their teenagers the most graphic, violent video games but they get concerned about exposing their hormone hounds to the concept of sex...something I'm sure they've NEVER thought about before. :eyes:
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villager Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 06:55 PM
Response to Reply #25
36. it is time to donate copies to local libraries in that area...
...then alert the press that you've done so, and the books will now be made more publicly available!
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Fleshdancer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 07:52 PM
Response to Reply #36
37. oooh, great idea! n/t
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Initech Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 03:07 PM
Response to Original message
27. Ah the good ol' American Taliban at it again!
Not able to handle the truth, are we?
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Coastie for Truth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 03:17 PM
Response to Original message
28. Prediction of the Bush Theocracy
Note: Check out Kevin Phillips' "American Theocracy : The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century", and Esther Kaplan's "With God on Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy, and Democracy in George W. Bush's White House", and "The Twilight of Democracy: The Bush Plan for America" by Jennifer Van Bergen, and "The Republican War on Science" by Chris Mooney - to see where I am coming from and going.

I read Handmaids' Tale as a science fiction thriller about what a runaway Bushite world would be like - populated by people like Bill Frist and Randall Terry and John Ashcroft and the oligarchs and the fundies.

My recollection was that there was a movie based on this book.
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villager Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-22-06 01:41 AM
Response to Reply #28
40. there was -- Robert Duvall was in it.
I recall that it wasn't great -- unlike, say, the current adaptation of "V for Vendetta."

Maybe it's time for a remake.
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The Stranger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 03:28 PM
Response to Original message
29. It is REQUIRED READING for any progressive.
It is about a THEOCRATIC DYSTOPIA and foreshadows the U.S.
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ptolle Donating Member (423 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 03:43 PM
Response to Original message
31. fine, but
As much as I'm philosophically opposed to any action of this sort on the practical real-life side I'd say fine let them ban it in the schools and then watch the circulation stats on the book skyrocket at local libraries and sales on Amazon and other net booksellers.I have to say i'm continually amazed at the notion that you can ban an idea, or put the genie back in the bottle.Sorry folks all you'll do with this is make the book and its ideas all the more attractive because it's forbidden.If anybody needs another real world demonstration of the law of unintended consequences I'd say this is the perfect setup for it.
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Vektor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 04:09 PM
Response to Original message
33. The Bible has very sexual references in it too. Do the fundies want to ban
that too? :shrug:

I guess if you mix a little Jesus with your sodomy, it's ok.
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knitter4democracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 05:34 PM
Response to Original message
34. Aw, crap. It's still happening.
When I taught high school (AP English, no less), I got in trouble for teaching Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon ("racist against whites" and "too sexual" were the two most common complaints), Shakespeare, Lord of the Flies, and pretty much everything. Every book was up for attack, even Jane Eyre.

What it really came down to was that anything the kids thought was hard was presented to the parents as problematic. The kids knew exactly what to say to get their parents upset, and their parents fell for it every time. I know this because I did some digging around and found out the truth (as opposed to my principal, who swallowed everything the kids said as the gospel truth).

I'm sure that's what's happening here--it's not the easiest book to read, so it's got to go. :eyes:
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Nikki Stone 1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 07:57 PM
Response to Reply #34
38. So, we should give the kids "My Pet Goat"?
That way, they can dumb all the other kids down, too.
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Finder Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 06:05 PM
Response to Original message
35. "The Handmaid's Tale "could become reality.
I would have disagreed in the past but with strict morality being such a top priority for many on the left and right these days, I shudder.

If anybody had told me even some self-described liberal feminists would one day share the same views on sexuality as the religious right wing, I would have laughed. One look at a thread on exotic dancers or actresses that dare bare all or a parent hiring a stripper for a young man's 16th birthday party will open your eyes.

Human sexuality has become a sin unless it is portrayed or performed only under strict regulations put forward by both ideologies which often agree on many points.

Notice the reason they want it out...the SEX. Not the threat of theocracy, not the threat of tyranny, not the threat of patriarchy, but the freaking SEX.


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womanofthehills Donating Member (104 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-21-06 09:34 PM
Response to Original message
39. Margaret Atwood's books
I've read most of Margaret Atwood's books but I just couldn't finish "The Handmaidens Tale". Guess I'll try again.
My favorite book of hers is "Surfacing" - one of her earliest books. It's a strange interesting tale.
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Nutmegger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-22-06 01:46 AM
Response to Reply #39
41. It's definitely apropos now in this political climate
Welcome to DU!
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farmboxer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-22-06 01:47 AM
Response to Original message
42. Outlawing books, is something fascists do.......
"A Handmaid's Tale", too much truth for the facists idiots!

Have they outlawed "1984" yet?

"Rising Storm", haven't seen that one for a very long time. A movie that must have been written by a psychic!
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CornField Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-22-06 01:51 AM
Response to Original message
44. 11th graders wouldn't know a damn thing about "sexually graphic" material
They just spend hours watching breasts and buttocks bounce across the MTV screen... noticing how dead women on CSI and Law and Order are treated more as objects than as a person... reading free erotica and sensationalized fan fiction on the internet (did you know Harry Potter boinked Ginny?)... teasing girls in the school system when their breasts start to develop and/or teasing boys in their school system when the facial hair starts to grow...

Yeah, they don't know nothing about 'sexually graphic' material. It's better if they're only allowed to play violent video games and go see movies which glorify war and oppression.

... the elections were about America's 'moral values' after all...
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villager Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-22-06 03:09 PM
Response to Reply #44
45. well, God approves of violence. "Bodies" -- and touching --
those nasty "erotic" things -- were just a cosmic oversight...
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