Sunday Salon: Sex is Good

Yesterday was the start of Banned Books Week, a yearly tradition I have been participating in, in one form or another, for six years.

Launched in 1982, BBW - which has a dedicated website - spreads the word about the censorship of books and reminds the public of our need to stay constantly vigilant against oppression by small minded individuals who desire nothing more than to control the rest of us. Okay, so they might not put it in exactly those terms, but I'm a bit biased. I have a very strong dislike that borders on hate for people who try to ban books.

There I've said it. My feelings about this topic are not really logical, practical, or objective; I actually get angry to the point of fantasizing about causing violence. I feel no sympathy for the parents who are "just trying to protect" their children; I don't sympathize with the religious organizations who "just want to protect" the public from sin. Sympathy or empathy are not the primary emotions I have for these people: sadness at the smallness of their minds and pissiness at their unwanted "protective" actions are what I feel. I actually want to bitch slap these people. Does that make me a bad person? Hmmm...

One of the most common reasons books are challenged is *drumroll please* SEX. Shocked? Didn't think so. We've all known for some time that certain people think sex is some dark, dirty, secret act which no one knows about except middle aged married folks. What rock are these people living under? If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that children know about sex, as in the details of how it's accomplished, by the time they are in sixth grade. I'm not saying they have a grasp on foreplay, the emotion involved, the repercussions thereof, the many variations, etc., but they know enough. Once they know how to do it, I think it's very, very important for them to start learning about the whys, the whos, the whens, and the what ifs. But apparently those who want to ban books think we should stop with the how.

This makes no sense whatsoever in my opinion. Knowing the physicality of something is not nearly as important as understanding the mental aspects of it. When teaching someone martial arts, you teach them the moves but you also discuss when and where and why to use those moves. Well, kids know how to perform the act of sex; reading books that include sexual activity may help them understand the important parts.

The other SEX concern is books which include homosexuality. The best part about this - these books don't even need to have naked bits in them; as long as there is the suggestion of homosexuality, the book banning idget's go into manic mode. I'm not even going to spend much time on this point because the idiocy is obvious. And if it's not obvious to you, then you probably shouldn't be reading my blog.

On a side note, the people who want to ban Twilight because of sexual content are killing me. Twilight is this large treatise on why people shouldn't have sex before marriage, about how we have to "control ourselves". I would think that the typical book banner would be fawning all over this.

My goal for Banned Books Week is to read a whole bunch of sex. Lovey-dovey, smutty, sweaty, delicate, deliberate, drunken, romantic, raunchy, and all-in-all pleasurable. I'm going to find some hot man-on-man action, some women with women and not for men's pleasure sexy stuff, some hetero-role-playing-fantasy fun, some first time love joy, whatever I can find that celebrates sexuality.

I'd love it if you would let me know suggestions, or join me in reading and reviewing books that highlight positive sexual relationships.

Some of the Books on the Sex Pile

1. Deliver Us From Evie by M.E. Karr: butch-on-femme love and girl-on-boy make out session
2. Annexed by Sharon Dogar: wet dreams and stolen kisses
3. Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton: uncomplicated hetero sex and possibly hookers
4. The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson: teenage lesbians
5. will grayson, will grayson by John Green and David Levithan: boys liking other boys...a lot
6. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler: we chunky girls have sex too
7. Nora Roberts and Elizabeth Lowell: explicit pre-marital sexual encounters
8. The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex by Kristen Schaal and Rich Blomquist: the title says it all