There’s that word, “scrotum,” on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky,â€? by Susan Patron, this year’s winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature.
The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.
Let the librarian’s banning brigade begin. Oh wait, it already has.
i don’t get the banning of a book for using the word scrotum in an absolutely proper and innocent context. a scrotum is a part of a mans body for crying out loud, let’s stop being so uptight and trying to protect our children in innapropriate ways, how about keeping them off the youtube websites and chat rooms where they get hit on by pediphiles, and let’s keep them away from television where they are being taught all sorts of immoral behaviors are aok! i’d rather my child be using his or her imagination and reading a book than vegetating infront of an xbox killing imaginary people or watching the prime time tv shows.
I have thought about writing children’s book, because I enjoy making children laugh, grow, explore, and discover and develop their language skills, thinking skills, motor skills and self-concept. I cannot blame some librarians for wanting to ban the book “The Higher Power of Lucky”. Because, libraries’ have children’s parents to deal with, who might not want their children reading material about “scrotum’s”. On the otherhand, how much can you really keep from a child, if they have heard about a boy’s (or men) “genitals” in the street, school or on television.
Censorship due to the word scrotum is nonsense. As a pediatrician, I can tell you kids know far more than parents and librarians believe. Their understanding however is generally at an elementary level. My four year old son once told my sister-in-law who loved to watch the soap operas, to annoy her, “I know what you and Uncle Don do under the covers.” She called me in great panic that he knew all about sex and someone must have told him or abused him. When I asked him about this he said that “sex is adults tickling under the covers in a dark room and it was naughty.” He was trying to manipulate her by annoying her because he didn’t want to take his nap.
By acting secretive and nervous about the “sex” scenes (all implied and not graphic) in the soap operas she gave him the wrong message that adult activities “under the covers” are “bad”. Our body language, our discomfort with using correct anatomical word, our extreme secretiveness with words like sex and scrotum does more harm than good.
Let the kids think that “sex” is an adult activity that is enjoyable. Let them know that the bag hanging from the dogs and other animals is a scrotum and only give them VERY basic information about what this is like “boys have this and girls don’t.” Slowly over the years more details can be given as it is age appropriate.
Just don’t give them the details and don’t try to make this word pornographic when it isn’t. We should teach them correct words and not let them use words like “pussy”, “dick”, etc. etc. etc. What are they supposed to call an animal’s scrotum? All kids go to the zoo, and see dogs and cats. They see rabbits, dogs, cats and animals at the zoo mate. Let’s use proper words. Let them understand things at their levels – don’t explain too much too early about function, but use proper anatomical names and yes even a toddler knows that boys and girls are different. Just teach them that words like penis and vagina are private and touching oneself on the privates should not be done in public like going to the bathroom should not be done in public. There are things that are not done politely in public. There are words not spoken politely in public. These are private acts and words. The world has private and public things. It is not “bad” or “evil” to do private things in public, just not polite and they mustn’t do them. Don’t give conatations that teach that normal anatomy and normal functions are “evil” or “bad” as this may inhibit their adult normal sexual practices through psychological harm.Be matter of fact about anatomy. Don’t be alarmed or act upset. This is a more healthy approach to the step-ladder of teaching kids about genitalia and sex.
What is wrong with using the words penis, scrotum and vagina. This means we all look different. Using these words is not a dissertation on sexual practices and certainly has absolutely NO tendency to make them engage in sexual activity inappropriately. I’d tell people who object to using them – “It’s every day anatomy stupid!”
Linda Shelton, Ph.D., M.D.
I feel that the response to this has been somewhat overstated and I may have not helped by linking to it on my blog. From my read there were a handful of librarians on a mailing list who objected to the word. While I disagree with their perspective on this topic, I feel that it’s a teensy minority, is not indicative of any “librarian banning brigade” and is an unfortunate side effect of the truly local control that libraries represent.
This is usually the good news, allowing a large degree of community involvement and interaction, but it can also on rare occasions, lead to things like this. I think the responses that I’ve read, including the author’s (she is a librarian herself) are generally supportive of this book and whatever language it contains. The NYT article was strange ont his subject, I wonder where they got their information.
A “handful of librarians,” Jesamyn, made the NYTimes and the WaPo. Censorship is big topic, especially when it’s imposed by librarians. Culturally, what surprises me the most is that in our “funny” home video culture, a large percentage of winning videos is usually about some man getting racked (hit in his scrotum and thereabouts) by a variety of objects, including children.
The double-standardness of this (censoring a book for a word that is a body part) plus that fact that it’s all over TV and YouTube as the archetype male visual joke, is what makes this newsworthy.
These are the same librarians (or library constituencies) that try to ban books on Two Mommies (or Daddies) as if that, too, is “dirty.”
Sometimes I want to throw my hands up and scream, “Come ON! Are you SERIOUS?” and then just blog social commentary and hope that minds like those who’ve commented above take over.
(note: I’ve got a PhD in Cultural Diversity Studies so I’m biased in favor of “all people”)