 |
| Photo by Дмитрий Пропадалин |
Two years ago, I hoped that Australia would avoid a new wave of moral panic, culture war and censorship. Now, I'm not so sure. There are signs of concern, although there are also signs of hope.
This is the first of what I hope will be a series of blog posts (not fully thought through, but more like a work in progress) where I will look at these issues from a few different angles.
I'll talk about where we're at now, but I also want to go back in time and cast the net much wider, exploring how horror, violence, nudity and sex has been censored in Australia. What did those groups object to and why?
The dictionary definition of censorship is a process exercised by a group of people who ban or modify a text, consequently curtailing the chance for another group of people to see, hear, or read it in its original form.
It's a limited definition that, in my view, doesn't include some of the more insidious forms of censorship like soft censorship (for example, when books are re-catalogued and re-shelved as adult when the target audience is for teenagers) and self-censorship in order to conform to the norm and not attract any attention/trouble.
Whilst the most commonly identified censorship is that of totalitarian regimes and their blatant ban of texts that do not follow their agenda, censorship is ever prevalent in free societies in subtle but powerful forms. Aldous Huxley warned in the 1930s that transparent censorship was to become the most powerful form, one that is assimilated and accepted by society.
He was right. Most censorship these days is not blatantly coming from the top.
With moral censorship, which is what we're seeing these days, pressure groups and the media exercise a strong influence over governing bodies advocating for protection for certain individuals from allegedly corruptive and dangerous films. To protect children from what they deem offensive, they demand that content and information is banned for everyone.
What we're seeing right now with attacks to LGBTQIA+ and sex education books as well as books with visual elements such as picture books, comics, graphic novels, manga, and non-fiction books with visual elements, is moral censorship of the worst kind. A culture war that aims to censor everything and anything they don't agree with or makes them feel uncomfortable.
The problem is that it infects everything else.
When conservative and religious groups and individuals continue to harass librarians and educators, objecting to books they deem inappropriate and referring those books to local government councillors, school principals, the eSafety Commissioner and the Australian Classification Board; well meaning people start to watch themselves and soft censorship slowly spreads.
Financial censorship starts to be exercised by publishers who, even when they're well meaning, they give little suggestions to creators to make amendments to avoid any trouble or who decide not to publish something because 'we better avoid entering into that for now.'
Educators start to self censor and don't invite an author to school because they are openly gay or take some books out of the classroom library and classwork because they don't want parents complaining about indoctrination.
Librarians start a process of soft censorship, hiding some books, taking them out of the shelves, re-cataloguing them for an older audience even though they're written for teens, or simply stop buying them, because they don't want complaints from patrons.
Political censorship emerges then with councillors and politicians demanding that some books are removed because one person finds them offensive or uncomfortable.
All this happens quietly. As teachers don't choose a certain text just to avoid any trouble with parents, as librarians don't place some books or graphic novels on display for fear of patrons making a complaint, it goes up the tree and management level staff start to say that 'adult graphic novels are not worth the trouble.' They also cancel a Rainbow Family Story Time because they don't want protesters at their door. Etc.
It's incredbly frustrating and disheartening when people instigating this type of culture war, despite their little tiny weeny number, can have a ripple effect that can grow into a terrifying and soul destroying wave.
It's not all doom and gloom though. Despite Australia's history of censorship (and it's quite a history: here's an article discussing Australian censorship in films and here's an article discussing Australian censorship of books throughout the 20th century), there are some positive signs.
Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be much appetite for political censorship of books and libraries in Australia. Some politicians from One Nation and LNP have tried to sow discord and fear but they're very few and on the far right, conservative and religious side of the spectrum, which is not gaining much traction in Australia. See for example what happened most recently in Albany, WA. They tried but failed because the community trusts libraries.
They failed in Albany, they failed with Gender Queer last year, but even when they lose, their actions can have serious consequences, including serious harm to marginalised members of the community.
The good news is that so far, they're not gaining much traction and, so far, teachers, librarians and institutions in Australia have very strongly repudiated these kind of attacks.
Let's hope it lasts. Let's hope we don't give an inch.
No comments:
Post a Comment