Future Generations - Blog Posts
"This International Women’s Day we call on all who identify as feminists to engage in the lifelong unlearning of their biases and to be in solidarity with Palestinian women, Sudanese women, Congolese women who are experiencing an ongoing genocide." from The Slow Factory, 08/Mar/2024: caption cont. under images.
In Palestine, more than 9,000 women have been brutally killed by the Israeli Occupation. 63 women killed per day.
In Sudan, 4 million Sudanese women & girls are at risk of sexual violence.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than 1 million women have been survivors of sexual violence.
In Turtle Island aka the so called USA, 94% of fatal violence committed again Trans people are committed against Trans women.
This isn’t about the stats, the poverty porn or the constant shock doctrine the West desperately needs in order to be inclusive. This is a call for solidarity and collective action.
Access to feminine hygiene products, bodily autonomy and the access to necessary safe and caring spaces as women are all human rights.
Challenges to the Future
As stated, books are great at taking the reader in and allowing them to experience something new. In the late 2000s and continued today, multiple researchers find that while the Harry Potter series focused prejudice specific to the wizarding world (blood status, class, speciesism), children who had read the series had translated the messages of equality into their own lives and lessened their prejudices of class, race, immigrants and others.
With an easy skim, two of my favorite children’s books/series are on this list: Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling (of course), and The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. While this large list of 130 of the most frequently challenged books overall (2) does not give the reasons why by looking at the titles you can see these of Cuban-stories (anti-communism, immigration), children growing up (books that mention changing bodies, sex-questions), “attacks” on religion (books with a non-Christian focus: witchcraft mostly), and challenged due to LGBTQIA+ content are again about trying to keep children “pure” and to block them from learning about the world around them. The list focused on YA novels, noted as those written for a YA audience, with a YA main character or frequently on high school reading list (3) has a similar content of banned books but with the addition of some books that to some may just be traumatizing such as The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney and Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl.
We know these stories, fiction or non-fiction, can improve young people’s mental health by knowing they are not alone with their feelings or questions, and that introducing someone to a different culture and mindset will increase communication, open-mindedness and reduce violence. I can understand not wanting to children exposed to things too early, but for most and as with my parents, what was seen as too old for me was not accurate and more of a personal desire. We must also remember that children are stronger than we think and children who grow without a diverse experiences will lose out not only because they will have less in life to enjoy but that as they interact with those who are different they have shown to be afraid and become violent.
(1) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-everyone-should-read-harry-potter/
(2) http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/childrensbooks
(3) http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/YAbooks
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