Censorship In Penguins

Books are said to be the foundation of our knowledge, the fruit of our innovation and the life of our values. Today, we can read Fifty-Shades of Grey publicly without a sanction and is viewed as normal. Although among children’s books it has not always been that way. In China, Green Eggs and Ham written by Dr. Seuss was banned by the Chinese Government from 1965-1991 due to its supposed display of early Marxism and in California due to its assume sexual nature. The world of tolerance pertaining to books has expanded from sneaking in to reading online to now also the difference within education systems like China and among the state of California. In California, Green Eggs and Ham was banned by officials at a California School in the early 1990’s due to the assumption that the book gave homosexual seduction in which they thought the eggs and ham tempted Sam in a sexual nature while in China, the book was ban because the Chinese

In one particular instance, a bill was passed in Tennessee stating that teachers cannot encourage “gateway sexual activity” (Nazaryan). This bill resulted in Sumner County officials banning Looking for Alaska from the curriculums of all schools due to the book’s single, brief oral sex scene. The Tennessean covered the news of the ban in their newspaper and quoted parents who agreed with the ban, stating that the school board was right in banning the book from the young and impressionable minds of children, who could possibly be so influenced by this blip of a scene in a book, that they might go and immediately engage in the same, or worse, sexual behavior. The newspaper, did however point out that there were alternate ways to address concerns regarding the book, such as offering alternate books to students whose parents were against it. John Green’s YouTube channel, “vlogbrothers”, features a video, “I Am Not A Pornographer”. In it, Green, referring to the ban, states that “there is one frank sex scene. It is awkward, unfun, and wholly unerotic.” (Green). Green goes on to say that the only reason for the existence of that scene is show a contrast between a very physical scene that contains no emotional intimacy and a very non-physical scene that is full of emotion. In another video, “On the Banning of Looking for Alaska”, Green says “text is meaningless without context” (Green) . Green is speaking to his opinion that books are banned most of the time because a parent decides to show a school principal or administrator a single excerpt or page of a book. Without proper context, that excerpt or page can appear to represent a very inappropriate book. Alternatively, if a reader were to assess a book in its entirety, while keeping an opening mind, they could glean important and valuable lessons from

A troubling issue for schools now is how to deal with the issue of homosexuality. The struggle for gay rights often causes heated opposition, particularly on moral grounds from members of religious groups. (Essex, 2005, p. 43) Schools have an obligation to maintain a peaceful environment free of significant disruption, while supporting students' rights of free speech. Schools should ". . . create an environment that is characterized by respect for individual views and divergent forms of expression within reasonable limits. The challenge seems to involve achieving a reasonable balance between an orderly educational environment and respect for the free speech rights of students. Precisely, where do they draw the line?" (Essex, 2005, p. 44)

Penguins ( family Spheniscidae, order Sphenisciformes) are a group of flightless, aquatic birds living exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere, particularly in Antarctica. Well-adapted for life in the water, these birds have countershaded white and black plumage, and their wings have evolved into flat, paddle-like flippers. They feed on squid, fish, krill and other forms of sealife. Penguins spend half of their lives in the oceans and half on land. This list contains 10 unusual facts about penguins you may not know.

Across the globe, the classic story, Of Mice and Men is banned in public schools because of conflicting opinions on the book. The banning of Of Mice and Men is very common because of the dark and depressing tone and irrelevant word choice. Parents call school districts complaining about the unbefitting context that their teens are reading, and schools have no choice but to ban them. Although the language used in Of Mice and Men, can be considered inappropriate and vulgar to some, censoring books in schools, is a violation of the first amendment, as well as hides teens from the hardships of life, and disconnects teens from meeting inspiring characters.

The portrayal of lesbian parents akin to the heterosexual mainstream, uninfluenced by their sexual orientation operates as a queer market strategy. hooks astutely articulates: “the commodification of difference promotes paradigms of consumption wherein whatever differences the Other inhabits is eradicated, via exchange, by a consumer cannibalism that not only displaces the Other but denies the significance of that Other’s history through a process of decontextualization (hooks 1992, 31). The displacement of queerness sustains a homonormative discourse. For instance, the prevalence of gender conforming subjects in The Kids Are All Right and The

James Baldwin once said, “Everybody 's journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality. ” From the moment babies are born, most parents treat boys and girls differently. One study says that parents have different expectations for boys and girls as early as 24 hours from birth, according to Susan D. Witt of the University of Akron. According to healthychildren.org, infants become aware of their sex within in the first year of life. Between ages 1 and 2, children begin to notice the physical differences between males and females, and typically by their third birthday they are able to easily identify themselves as a boy or a girl. People are faced with many obstacles that alter their life. Just like the many controversies in society, “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin discusses a young man being gay in a society and a family who are simply not ready to accept his sexual orientation and neither does he. This fiction also emphasizes the battle that he faces with self-acceptance. Gender identity and American norms in society is widely discussed almost every day. Americans are becoming more open and accepting of the LGBT community, as well as against the LGBT community.

Same-sex parenting is taken both in positive and negative sense but even then it is regarded more as a family issue. There is a concept that where lives a same-sex couples, there must be children raised by them. Then it comes to mind that which sort of children? Such children may be divided into three groups: (Kurtz, 2004)

Censoring books is perceived as a way of parents protecting their children from scandalous subjects, however, by banning books they deprive them essential lessons they can use in society. An example that Lee Burress offers in Battle of the Books, is how a book can give a modern perspective on a subject, children are unfamiliar with, but may encounter. “Foster Child by Marion Bauer is a banned book that gives a modern perspective of how modern foster children are treated” (Burress). It touches the subject of sexual abuse and although parents try to protect their children from these subjects: it is better for children to know what sexual abuse is rather than remaining ignorant. In this case ignorance is not bliss and it can lead to children being unable to identity when they are being molested. It can also teach children empathy and lead them

As society becomes increasingly more politically correct and liberal, novels that contain controversial or offensive topics have been regularly challenged, and disputed against. Schools have progressively began to censor and ban the novels they once offered in their reading curriculums, and it has become a contentious topic of discussion. Novellas such as Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, have sparked debates across the country as to whether or not they should be banned from schools due to the profanity, the sexist themes, the racism, and the advanced or inappropriate subject matters. While it may seem that these topics in Of Mice and Men may be too inappropriate for a young student to be exposed to, these topics actually positively

The College of Charleston had assigned Fun Home to the incoming students. The House lawmakers were not pleased with Fun Home’s theme of homosexuality and the text’s depiction of sexual imagery. Some students, in retaliation had organized protests convincing the governor to stop the House from cutting down the funds (McCammon, 2014). On the other hand, some students down in North Carolina, one being Brain Grasso, agreed to the fact that the story contains obscenity. They refused to read the book as its content goes against their religious and moral beliefs (Grasso, 2015).

Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) in the Antarctic are fascinating flightless birds that are able to withstand incredibly harsh environments, where wind chills can reach to -76°F. Even though these penguins are able to survive the freezing temperatures, their breeding success and mortality rates are based primarily on the sea ice concentration (SIC) and sea ice extent (SIE) throughout the seasons. Sea ice concentration is a variable for climate scientists and nautical navigators to find the area of sea ice compared to the total at a given point in the ocean, whereas sea ice extent refers to a region as “ice-covered” or “not ice-covered.” During the late 1970s, there was an elongated atypical warm period with reduced

The children’s book, And Tango Makes Three, should not be banned from public libraries. This book displays an important message that is hard for kids to come across. This controversial scenario is hard for children to grasp, especially if they are part of a homosexual family. Based on a true story, this book is a nice analogy that helps kids develop an understanding of this matter. The use of penguins is gentle instead of using human characters. This exposes children at an early age to accept people for who they are, and understand the challenges that these types of family’s face.

The essay, “Evan’s Two Moms”, was written by Anna Quindlin and published in the 2004 edition of Good Reasons with Comtemporary Arguments. This essay takes a liberal point of view concerning gay marriage and the ability to raise a child in a gay family. Throughout Quindlen’s essay, her structure introduces ethos, pathos and logos through a variety of court cases to gain the readers trust; she appeals to both emotion and logic in her reader through passion and unwavering intensity, which disapproves of those who take a radical point of view about gay marriage.

Fairy tales are under attack in the United States from both right- and left-oriented pressure groups. (Ravitch, 62-96) From the left, the charges include sexism, stereotyping, distortion, and anti-humanism. (Ravitch, 84) From the right, the charges include immorality and objections to the portrayal of violence, death, and the supernatural. In addition, some critics claim that the tales terrify their children. (Ravitch, 76). In The Language Police, Diane Ravitch claims that both groups understand the importance of putting pressure on state textbook adoption committees, and that, as a result of such pressure, most major publishers are simply dropping the tales from the textbooks they sell to