Banned Books Week by Women: Sunday Edition
This Sunday we are celebrating Banned Books Week by featuring writings by women that have been banned or challenged. The Banned Books Week Coalition defines challenging a book as an attempt to restrict materials or services based on content, while banning a book is the removal of materials or cancellation of services based on content. These books have been challenged or banned for expressing controversial political opinions (Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi); addressing gender identity and transness (I am Jazz! by Jessica Herthel); using offensive language and being sexually explicit (The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston); homosexuality (The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall); equating science and religion (A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’engle); immoral and scandalous female behavior (The Awakening by Kate Chopin); attacking of dominant sexual order (The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir); and, addressing legacies of slavery and racism (Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison). There are so many more reasons why books are consistently being banned and challenged, especially those written by female authors. Pick up one of these previously banned or challenged books and celebrate women in literature and our freedom to read.
