I have a secret. It is one that I try not to think about too often but I am going to share it with you because I trust you to understand.
I want to join a book banning campaign. I want to burn books.
There, I said it. Isn’t it horrible? So far I have been able to keep my impulse to ban or burn under wraps but it is difficult. It is more difficult when I hear someone talk about the very book I want to ban or burn. That happened recently when Amanda Marcette at Pandagon blogged Nothing More Counter-Cultural Than a Burqua. You see Amanda was talking about Wendy Shalit’s book “A Return to Modesty” (which I will not link because I want to burn it or ban it and I do not want to expose you to something as horrible as this particular book).
I totally and completely agree with Amanda, Shalit has found just another way to teach women to hate their bodies. She’s trying to discourage women from being proud of who they are and telling the world just what they think. Her book actually suggests that women who have not “returned to modesty” get what they deserve when they are treated poorly by men or even by other women. Can you imagine? Shouldn’t a woman like Wendy Shalit understand just how harmful that type of talk is to women – and to men???
I read this book as soon as it was released (2002) because the website I was spending a lot of time on was having a live chat with the author. After I finished I felt the need to burn and ban, stronger than virtually any feeling I’ve ever had. But, it’s against my “religion” to do such a thing to a book, ya know? Some people have suggested I sell it or give it away but I do not want anyone impressionable to read such trash and I don’t want to expose non-impressionable people with it either. So, there it still sits on my shelf.
Every now and then I see it and feel the urge to lay a fire in the fireplace (bad idea since I live in Florida and it’s often way too hot for a fire). Banned Books Week is coming up, I’m feeling the temptation to start a campaign. Argh!
This is the only book in my house that I have forbidden my children from reading. They can read the lesbian erotica. They can read the blood and gore mysteries. They can read the two Harlequin’s on the shelf. They can read Dr Laura but they cannot EVER read A Return to Modesty. It’s a Lost Virtue that I hope stays lost forever.