The Handmaid's Tale - Censorship

« STATION 1 GENERAL INFORMATION AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT Watch the video entitled “Censorship in the USA (Censored EP 104)” by Octopie STATION 2 BANNED BOOKS WEEK STATION 3 THE HAYES CODES STATION 4 CHALLENGES TO THE BOOK 1990 In the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School district of California, The Handmaid’s Tale was challenged as a reading assignment by a twelfth-grade English student’s parent for supposedly containing ‘sexually explicit’ passages.

The parent underlined the passages that she objected to and presented them to the Rancho Cotati High School’s Site Level Review Committee for review.

A local minister also called for the book’s removal from the curriculum on the grounds that the viewpoint character is a woman—‘young men were unable to relate to her. The book was ultimately retained on the curriculum. 1992 Parents from Waterloo schools in Iowa challenged the book as ‘optional’ reading for twelfth-grade English students.

Their complaints cited ‘profanity, lurid passages about sex, and statements defamatory to minorities, God, women, and the disabled’ as well as the depiction of religion as an ‘oppressive force’[ix].

The student body president at West High School argued the challenge was an act of censorship and a ‘direct assault on the individual liberties’.

The school board voted six-to-one, ultimately rejecting the complaints.

Unsatisfied protestors appealed to the Iowa Department of Education, but as school districts have authority to determine reading lists, the book was retained. 1993 In Massachusetts, the book was removed from English class reading lists at Chicopee High School for containing profanity and sex. 1998 Among several other books that were deemed ‘poor-quality literature’, the book was challenged in Richland High School, Washington, by a group of ‘concerned citizens’ who wanted the works removed from the classroom ‘to protect others from the dangers of what they have deemed obscene materials’.

The challengers claim the book supposedly promotes suicide, illicit sex, violence and ‘hopelessness’.

In one request for reconsideration, the challengers describe Atwood as ‘blasphemous’ and accuse her of belittling and degrading the Bible. 1999 A teacher and parent from George D Chamberlain High School in Tampa, Florida protested the book’s inclusion in the school curriculum, citing examples of sexually graphic passages.

The school committee addressed the concerns and agreed The Handmaid’s Tale was suitable for the advanced placement English list. 2000 The book was changed from ‘required’ to ‘optional’ on a summer reading list for eleventh-grade students in the Upper Moreland School District near Philadelphia because its subject matter was considered ‘ageinappropriate’. 2001 A group of parents from a school in Dripping Springs, Texas, considered the book anti-Christian and were offended by passages describing sexual encounters.

The school board decided to make the book optional reading for senior Advanced Placement English students. 2006 Following complaints from parents in the Judson Independent School District of Texas that the book was ‘sexually explicit’ and ‘offensive to Christians’, the.... »