Forum - View topicINTEREST: Texas Republican Rep Cites Goblin Slayer As "Obscene" Book To Ban From Schools
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GrayArchon
Posts: 393 |
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If he's claiming that it contains "graphic images of women being raped by demons" then he can only be talking about the manga. The light novel contains no graphic images of rape. The most objectionable images it has are barbie doll nudity of women bathing or changing. Whereas the manga adaption does contain a few relatively graphic depictions of goblins assaulting women.
Because his concern isn't really children reading Goblin Slayer at a public school library. He doesn't cite a single school district, much less a single school that carries either the manga or the light novel in their library. Which isn't all that surprising as I'd be surprised a school library would opt to carry it. I can imagine scenarios where it slipped through the cracks at an under resourced school or school district, but most review processes would likely reject either manga or light novel simply for nudity in a work that's for entertainment, not education. Instead he makes the rather concerning statement:
Just labeling the entire fan base of a series as mentally ill for the series containing a few controversial scenes is a problem in and of itself. But the real concern is that promising to go after vendors is very alarming as that's the sort of thing that results in censorship. Real censorship as in brick and mortar book stores refusing to carry a series for fear of being not just being sued but fear of being criminally charged. Digital stores doing the same thing. The publisher discontinuing the series to avoid dealing with the legal issues and the negative publicity. Even the publisher discontinuing or censoring other series that may be at risk of similar accusations. In other words, he's not concerned about controversial material being in school libraries, he's objecting to it existing at all. While using the fear of it being in school libraries to justify his desire for larger censorship, despite it being really easy to keep out of school libraries.
Huh? I'd be highly surprised if Goblin Slayer had such an "approval stamp". You'd have to reach really hard to see any of its content as even vaguely LGBT+. While the only sexual acts it depicts are a few rapes that the manga depicts, which no one reasonable would take to be a good thing. |
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Guile
Posts: 595 |
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1. Pointing out hypocrisy is not 'whataboutism'. That term has become such a bane for critical discussion in how people misuse it. If people are going to be snarky and say things like the Right are the actual pushers cancel culture then it should be completely fair to correct people and point out most cases of actual censorship are done to manga and anime we know is done at the distribution level by people who identify as progressive, such as the censorship made to Kodansha USA's newest Shaman King release. 2. I would assume vendors in this case can mean the libraries and schools themselves who stocked it unless you can provide more detailed sources. It sounds as if people are 100% fearmongering if they're trying to push a narrative that people aren't going to be able buy these books elsewhere. Do people honestly think Amazon wont ship these books to Texas residents, or that Crunchyroll would ban and block this content from Texas IP addresses if they tried to watch Goblin Slayer on Crunchyroll? Is there a precedence for that already I am not aware of? Not even the most commonly banned books like To Kill a Mockingbird have gotten that level of treatment, just being dropped from a school's required reading curriculum. |
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TarsTarkas
Posts: 5913 Location: Virginia, United States |
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You don't need the Bible to argue against this or say the Bible should be included in the banning process.
There is plenty of fiction out there that has quite more graphic and detailed depictions of rape than anything the manga version of Goblin Slayer shows. The written word can be quite explicit. I remember one historical fiction 'family' series from the American revolutinary past, that featured a graphic depiction of the rape of a teenage girl. If I remember right it was a popular series by John Jakes. Kiss the Girls by popular author James Patterson also features rape. None of theses novels are considered pornography, nor are they listed as for mature audiences only despite their graphic depictions of rape. I know some will argue that novels are just written words, how can they be more graphic than manga images. I'll say they can be, because they can be more detailed in their description of the act, more detailed in the descriptions of the rapist and his victims, and simply be more verbose (spend more time on the act) than Goblin Slayer does. General fiction, science fiction, and fantasy can be quite adult in their stories, and you would never know it from their covers or synopsis. This is purely separate from those novels that are firmly rooted in their explictness, just by looking at the cover. Many libraries get books from donations, even school libraries. It is practically impossible to keep explicit content out of the hands of teenagers in libraries. Unless the cover shows the content, you'll never know what is inside, and that includes the librarians. I guess manga and graphic novels get hit because the politicians and vocal groups don't have to read those books, all they have to do is flip through the pages. For me this is just political grandstanding, and I really doubt the politician in question really cares, it is just a campaign beat. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Well, yeah, because it's probably none of them. I mean, Goblin Slayer is certainly trash--reading it doesn't make you evil, but you'd have a hard time arguing it's high-minded artistic expression--but this is just the usual off-topic outrage to distract from real problems. Problems like, I dunno, the ongoing pandemic, the accelerating ping-pong between inflation and recession, and the impending third world war. But yes, an edgy graphic novel from another country is definitely what American politicians should discuss. |
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Florete
Posts: 377 |
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It is absolutely whataboutism. It is ignoring the issue being brought up in favor of another that the original person deems more important. "Hypocrisy" is not a thing that was ever brought up to begin with.
You assume (your own word), then tell me I need to provide more detailed sources. No. And yet, he used the word 'sold,' so he's definitely not talking about libraries and probably not talking about schools. For the record, no, I don't think he'll get his way, but that doesn't mean we should just ignore him, because that's when things like this end up able to slip through the cracks. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11551 |
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"Since its founding in 2019, Bibles in Schools has donated Bibles to over 1,500 public school libraries throughout 43 states in the U.S." https://www.liberty.edu/news/2021/12/28/liberty-graduate-spreads-the-good-news-through-bible-distribution-in-schools-across-america/ You can have Bibles and other religious texts like the Qur'an in public school libraries as long as the school curriculum isn't using them to proselytize a religious belief. |
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scowler
Posts: 93 |
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I’m betting he doesn’t actually have an example of Goblin Slayer available in a public school library. Probably this was something found in Barnes and Noble and then the Right Wing Cinematic Universe took over.
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FeelMyBlade
Posts: 149 |
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These are the exact same fears people have been talking about for years now, only back then people were told they were overreacting, called anti-industry, grifters, and a lot of other choice words. These tactics also sound very similar: insulting an entire fanbase and painting them as dangerous? You couldn't go one post without being called an incel or misogynist if you were fans of shows like Darling in the Franxx, Cross Ange, Shield Hero, Redo of Healer, or even milquetoast works like Welcome to the Ballroom. And fears of publishers self-censoring things or pulling distribution out of fears of negative publicity this might cause? That one sounds the most familiar of all. After being told for years that criticism and pressuring publishers to change things was fine, and that censorship was within the rights of any given market, suddenly now it's a concern because it's going to affect the books these people read? I believe it was one of Anime News Network's This Week in Games articles that had this to say about censorship complaints: "All that's worth saying about the matter is that people recognized something bad, discussed it, and want to change it. Case closed. Move on." |
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ATastySub
Past ANN Contributor
Posts: 678 |
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Or, as is the actual case here, people have been overreacting to any actual criticism or exploration of works for years by attacking it as censorship. Largely led by grifters and outrage merchants that do have quite a following of misogynists because it's very easy to get those kinds to throw abuse at whoever they target. And now, as ever, a conservative who holds their same values is arguing for actual censorship, and somehow this once again has to be twisted to be the fault of anyone else. |
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IceLeaf
Posts: 146 |
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I mean, that's fair. Goblin Slayer should not be in schools at all since it's rated 17+
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Cardcaptor Takato
Posts: 5086 |
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One theory I've heard on Twitter is maybe the politician got Goblin Slayer mixed up with Demon Slayer which Demon Slayer would make more sense that it would be in a public school K-12 school than Goblin Slayer since Demon Slayer runs in Shonen Jump and they both have similar titles and Demon Slayer is actually popular with younger readers.
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6228 |
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Most “good” history and fictional books not written by authors co-opting certain “problematic views” don’t have people who use those books to encourage violence, death, & condemnation of certain groups for the evil act of living their life i.e. being a independent thinking/functioning female or a gay/trans/non binary individual or not being “religious” enough. And having the risk of proselytizing or indoctrinating easily swayed individuals into accepting those same “questionable and regressive” beliefs. Which I know isn’t entirely the fault of the Bible but people also Pastors and worshippers becoming radicalized independent of what they may read in the texts. |
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ChiilongCha
Posts: 37 |
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I don't know but aren't there 18 year olds in high school? Wouldn't the ban block their access to the book which they are legally able to read?
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 1440 |
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No? It wouldn't make it illegal for high schoolers to buy or read them, just make access slightly more complicated than picking it up in the school's central library. Like, say, going to a local public library instead. Or buying it at a book store. Or more than likely buying the e-book so they can read it on their phone. |
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Spawn29
Posts: 554 |
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When I was in High School, my school had comics and manga in the library for students to read or rent. I remember they had Watchmen, Oldboy, Transmetropolitan, etc. Oldboy is more violent than Goblin Slayer because it's grounded to the real world. Watchmen is more graphic as well.
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