Skins, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Censorship

The American version of the British television show Skins premiered last week on MTV, and has since faced controversy that goes as far as child pornography accusations. I have not seen the American version, nor am I lawyer, so this post will not explore that issue beyond this point. Instead, this is a post about how censorship always tends to have an effect opposite of its intentions.

I was introduced to the UK Skins a couple years ago when my friend showed me this gem of a scene (spoilers if you haven't seen the UK version, the American version will have to be different since there's no Maxxie.) I watched a couple of other clips after that, but I never actually sat down and watched the show. After I read about the drama surrounding the American version, I watched (and loved) the pilot of the British version to see what all the fuss was about. (Note: I wrote this parapraph on Monday. I've since finished the first season of Skins. It's SO good.)

I'm nineteen, so I'm at that weird age where, legally speaking, I'm a teenager and adult at the same time. Of course I can make the decisions about what I watch as a legal adult, but I would've done the same thing if I was sixteen. Heck, when I was thirteen I was supposed to see a production of To Kill a Mockingbird with my class, only to later be informed that To Kill a Mockingbird is not allowed to be taught in Nova Scotia, and we couldn't go. Everyone in my class was so frustrated by this that we all wanted to read To Kill a Mockingbird, and some arranged trips to see the play outside of class. We wanted to prove that we weren't kids anymore, we were curious, and yeah, we were not impressed that we were missing out on a field trip.

How many of us do you think would've picked up To Kill a Mockingbird at thirteen if that hadn't happened? How many people do you think will watch Skins because they were told not to?

The problem with this is that teenagers will still read and watch this material, but they'll feel a need to hide it from their teachers and parents, which prevents many important conversations from happening. I don't think it's necessary for teenagers to discuss every adult issues with an adult--in case you haven't heard, teenagers are smart--but if they want to, I think it's important they have that opportunity.

Censorship often occurs to hide kids from the world, which is a nice but incredibly naive thought. The truth is that all censorship does is peek kid's curiosity--and I guarantee you that if they want to find censored material, they will find it on the internet--and prevent conversations about important issues.

In short, censorship sucks. Though the controversy around Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak has died down, let's still remember to speak loudly.

Update: Check out this incredible video from Funny or Die about the PTC's reaction to Skins. It shows exactly what censorship does.

Teenagers thank the Parents Television Council - watch more funny videos

You tell me: Is the controversy surrounding Skins an overreaction? Were any books banned at your school? Did you read them anyway? 

Speaking Loudly

I’ve wanted to speak loudly, but I haven’t known what to say. I still don’t, to be honest. This is what I do know:

• I love Jesus
• I hate book banning
• There are people who need to read SPEAK that haven’t read it yet

And those three points are what this post comes down to. I went on Twitter this morning to find the #speakloudly campaign. The cliffnotes version of the story is that Dr. Wesley Scroggins wrote an opinion piece saying that SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson should be banned from schools because, you know, the rape scenes are soft-core porn.

Say it with me: What?!

I’m a Christian and my faith is my life. Really, my faith is why I have life. I can’t stand it when people use Christianity as a reason to ban books because, well, it’s wrong.

Seriously, have you read the Bible? It’s messy. But, it has to show the sin to show the consequences of it. Honestly, I think that’s what most YA books do. SPEAK does not advocate rape; it shows what devastating consequences it has on the victim, and encourages the victim to speak out about it.

Problems won’t go away if we stop writing about them.

But they might if we start.

What if no one wrote about rape? What if no one talked about rape? It would still happen, and I’m willing to bet it would happen more than it does now.

So, let’s write about it, and all the other messy things in the world. Let’s talk about them. Let’s speak loudly. Maybe then, we can change things.

I sound naïve. I’m not. Change is slow. But, change will stop if we stop. We can’t silence the voices that are speaking loudly. We need to join them.