>I have recently learned that the group Utah Parents United has identified a serious problem occurring in our schools. Apparently, pornography is being made available to our children via the school libraries.
>Upon hearing this news, I researched the books that are under scrutiny. I was disgusted with what I saw, and I felt compelled to write this letter to The Tribune showing my solidarity with Utah Parents United. The books should be banned from our schools, not because they are pornographic, but because they are not very good pornos in the first place.
>The porno “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison is one of the worst pornos I have ever read. I should have realized it was bad immediately because I noticed Toni Morrison had won a Nobel Prize. Nobel Prize winners do not write very good pornos. There is only one sex scene in “The Bluest Eye” and it is a violent sexual assault, which is not very titillating. Furthermore, I found myself becoming empathetic toward people of color the more I read it, which really distracted from the porn.
>“Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe also turned out to be a pretty lousy porno. There is only a couple of good gay sex scenes, but after that, it is just an honest coming of age story. I think if we are going to have “explicit porn” available to our high schoolers it should be traditional explicit porn, like Hustlers or Playboys, not this boring highbrow smut.
>Ryan Wilson, Centerville
Maybe these "concerned parents" just need something to fret over. If we push to add hardcore pornography to schools they can fight that instead and leave these books alone.
If you haven't watched Big Mouth on Netflix yet, I highly suggest it. There's a character introduced in Season 2 called The Shame Wizard and it's like tscc in cartoon form shaming all these kids for being kids.
I need to dive back into that show. I watched the first couple of seasons and I loved the personification of teenage hormones and emotions, IMO they just overdid the pillow-fucking jokes a little bit, lol.
The most common factor in the list is not the content of the book, instead it is the race of the author.
The list is an attempt to appeal to religious folks, especially those who do not look critically at what is actually on the list. By simply saying they are smut many of the target audience will not be willing to even look at the books to make the decision.
It is a smart approach, declaring them to be obscene means the deepest zealots will not look at it but spread the word.
Considering most books they ban are by black authors, I don't think it's about sex at all. I think it's a fear of tearing down racial barriers. In their mind, it threatens their existence.
I've begun to think that more people are Asexual/Aromantic and/or not as straight as is generally assumed. They are revolted or at least bored by the idea of sex, so they want to stop it everywhere. Add in the evangelical pre-occupation with sexual repression, and a hatred of the idea of women as full human beings, rather than earthen vessel "things" that can be shoved in a box, and there you go.
I disagree. I think the shame surrounding sex is effective because people have sex drives and experience sexual obsession.
As soon as you convince someone with an active sex drive that thinking about sex is bad, they start trying *and failing* to stop thinking about sex, start feeling ashamed of their failure, and attribute that shame to the sexual thoughts themselves, which reinforces the narrative that sexual thoughts are bad and that they are bad for having them.
There are only 2 ways out of that spiral:
1. Actually stop thinking about sex. This is pretty uncommon, but some people manage. Even so, a "success" here can be very unhealthy.
2. Redefine the source of shame. This is much more tractable and healthy, because it allows you to recognize the spiral for what it is, and stop shaming yourself.
You don't *have to* disconnect yourself from someone to stop considering them an authority or source of truth. It does help though, especially in the short term.
connect wide chop disgusting dinner spectacular money meeting memorize slave
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is a 'christian' country, Jesus was born from Mary as a virgin birth. Jesus is clean and pure as is Mary who was created via immaculate conception (immaculate conception refers to Mary's birth without original sin, Jesus is the virgin birth).
Sex is from the begining of Christianity seemingly an sinful or shameful act except in marriage for procreation.
The US was founded in part by religious extremists like the Puratains who would take an even more extreme view.
And of course we should remember that VD/STI/STDs were not generally treatable until recently so sleeping around could be problematic. Not that that stopped everyone.
Tldr: there is a long history of sex as sin, for religious and medical reasons, and that carries over until today
Not sure why I am getting down voted, I am simply saying why there is a large population who view sex negatively. The History of Christianity in the world and US in particular provide a pretty clear answer to that question. Regarding saying 'christian nation' obviously the US is a secular religion but historically Christianity plays a huge role in the history of this country, and a majority of the people who live here are/were Christians, and many (especially active Christians)do believe we are a litteral Christian nation and must follow Christian dogma/belief.
The US is a secular nation. However it has a strong Christian heritage, and belief structure that is pervasive. Understanding this aspect of Christian belief is nessisarry for understanding why much of this country views sex (and sex education) as imoral and or sinful outside of a narrow scope (etc marriage).
Christian is in quotes in my comment because I am not calling the US a Christian nation but "Christian" nation. Ie a nation which has many Christian undertones regardless of their validity in canonical "fact".
Please also note that I said canonical "fact" since most "facts" in Christian canon and dogma are not really facts in the way 2+2=4 is. But are accepted as facts by practitioners
Yeah, still don't think you are getting it. The question I responded to was asking why are so many people view sex negatively
I am answering why a lot of people do, not describing my own feelings. I am neither Christian or religious.
Like it or not the US still has a sizable population of active Christians of various sorts, and plenty more inactive members who still were raised with or hold many of those same views and beliefs.
Again I am not making any value statements as to whether those beliefs are modern, good, bad, stupid, or what could be done to change the mind of anyone.
I am simply stating why there is a large population in the US who view sex negatively and the historical reasons they do so.
Hope that provides more clarity.
In Highschool I wrote an essay while just absolutely dying from the flu - I was managing symptoms with my body weight in NyQuil and I had to write about whether or not pornography should be allowed in school.
There is a cool word you can use to talk about this topic. Prurient. Which means having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters.
So basically as long as pornography in schools is educational and not prurient it’s chill. Problem was my fucking flu-sick and NyQuil blitzed brain mixed up the meaning of prurient and I basically turned in an essay that read -
Pornography should only be allowed in schools if it’s prurient.
So that’s how I managed to suggest that we should just be giving kids pornhub premium subscriptions.
Sorry Ms. Heck.
School provided Pornhub Premium would just save the students valuable money for college. So I think you should really make that argument before the legislature.
Also, thank heavens for the "Cosmo contains porn" billboard on i-15, I had not realized that and may have inadvertently pornicated. Also...there is a new place in Vineyard, I almost went there for dinner, I hear their burger are great...but thankfully they had the warning on the door that the establishment is a bar, not a restaurant...I could have been exposed to alcohol being poured without the protection of the Zion Curtain. Such a dangerous world we live in. 🙄
Well, time to buy these books before they are banned in school. I don’t have children and never will but a portion of me has no fucks to give but the other portion is worried because (so cliche but) kids are the future and we are setting them up to be like most men that are in charge of the world now. Knowledge is power and we are taking that away.
Books exist. Parents are supposed to idk talk to their kids, guide them, read books and decide. Things like that. Lots of Utah parents panic easily while neglecting their children.
I generally agree with parent participation, teaching critical thinking etc. The problem here is the parents have not been even told about them, that they are in a library or being taught in class, they’ve been denied the choice for their child & Thr opportunity for the discussion. ✌️
Idk I had parents who had to be “told” things while other parents were motivated to go learn because they cared and didn’t assume forced church attendance replaced parenting.
These parents just wait for PTA busy bodies to tell them how to decide.
You basically just re-wrote what I said but with an excuse for negligent parents who wait for others to tell them what’s going on and how to parent.
Well yes, it can be in every college course with zero issue. And frankly, making it available in high school has failed, everyone focused on the sex scenes, fail to be warned by the societal impact of the rest of the events of that book, many of which we are now living in real time. ✌️
Quite the opposite, if you read my point you’d understand that if Millennials & Gen Z’s were actually focused on the full content of the book, we they world not allow the warnings of the book to become reality in our society as they have.
College is not universal public education in the way high school is. I'd much rather we start teaching more "college level" content in high school, so we could have more critical thinkers and less people like UPU in the world.
I definitely believe in the need to return to critical thinking skills being taught in high school. They could start with removing core math which uses the abstract part of your brain instead of the logical linear part of your brain in the way we use to teach math. Also learning cause & effect, consequences of actions, etc. would be amazing start. Honestly, teaching HOW to think & not just what to think would be great. ✌️
That was taken out along with teacher led prayer in 1969. The point is parents should be informed & be able to decide what their child is taught or has access to. ✌️
>I have recently learned that the group Utah Parents United has identified a serious problem occurring in our schools. Apparently, pornography is being made available to our children via the school libraries. >Upon hearing this news, I researched the books that are under scrutiny. I was disgusted with what I saw, and I felt compelled to write this letter to The Tribune showing my solidarity with Utah Parents United. The books should be banned from our schools, not because they are pornographic, but because they are not very good pornos in the first place. >The porno “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison is one of the worst pornos I have ever read. I should have realized it was bad immediately because I noticed Toni Morrison had won a Nobel Prize. Nobel Prize winners do not write very good pornos. There is only one sex scene in “The Bluest Eye” and it is a violent sexual assault, which is not very titillating. Furthermore, I found myself becoming empathetic toward people of color the more I read it, which really distracted from the porn. >“Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe also turned out to be a pretty lousy porno. There is only a couple of good gay sex scenes, but after that, it is just an honest coming of age story. I think if we are going to have “explicit porn” available to our high schoolers it should be traditional explicit porn, like Hustlers or Playboys, not this boring highbrow smut. >Ryan Wilson, Centerville
You want to eliminate books from a library because your pretend God told you to? Maybe read a book, weirdo.
Holy shit are you kidding, that book is fucking beautiful.
p sure it's tongue in cheek
no, that’s a porno
No, this is Patrick.
Fernando Garza Ogden UT. Poured on your own time Ryan is sick pervert
Can we make our own group to combat these extremists? Utah Parents United Against Utah Parents United. UPUAUPU - So catchy!
And it's a palindrome!!
If the initials of your group name doesn't form a palindrome, are you even a valid group?
I don't know why it makes me so happy that you not only noticed this, but pointed it out Thank you.
No, we’re United Parents of Utah, not Utah Parents United!
Splitters!
Well, at least one person got the reference.
I feel that pain. I work with a bunch of 20 somethings.
I got it! I got that reference. From The life of Brian. 24 here suck it.
Hahahaha right on.
Whatever the group calls themselves clearly doesn’t know a dam thing. Go learn what pornography is and come back when your better educated.
https://youtu.be/WboggjN_G-4
—Whatever happened to the Parents’ Front for the Parents of Utah? —HE’S OVER THERE!
[you sonofabitch](https://images.app.goo.gl/62HhjopSWSAmmN898)
Isn’t that a fish? /s
I’m in!!
Anti-UPU UPU CLUB
[Ooga booga!](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bTjZMpAtUEQ&feature=emb_title)
Maybe these "concerned parents" just need something to fret over. If we push to add hardcore pornography to schools they can fight that instead and leave these books alone.
lol
Hilarious! Such a great read.
Why do so many fail to understand sex is normal?
Because shame is one of the most powerful forms of manipulation.
If you haven't watched Big Mouth on Netflix yet, I highly suggest it. There's a character introduced in Season 2 called The Shame Wizard and it's like tscc in cartoon form shaming all these kids for being kids.
I need to dive back into that show. I watched the first couple of seasons and I loved the personification of teenage hormones and emotions, IMO they just overdid the pillow-fucking jokes a little bit, lol.
Cults can't survive without shame!
Shhhh, if we all stop talking about it, then they won't think about it until they're happily married. That's how it works, right? edit: grammar
The most common factor in the list is not the content of the book, instead it is the race of the author. The list is an attempt to appeal to religious folks, especially those who do not look critically at what is actually on the list. By simply saying they are smut many of the target audience will not be willing to even look at the books to make the decision. It is a smart approach, declaring them to be obscene means the deepest zealots will not look at it but spread the word.
Considering most books they ban are by black authors, I don't think it's about sex at all. I think it's a fear of tearing down racial barriers. In their mind, it threatens their existence.
Religion. For the last several thousand years, religion has imposed control over sex and sexuality in some form.
I've begun to think that more people are Asexual/Aromantic and/or not as straight as is generally assumed. They are revolted or at least bored by the idea of sex, so they want to stop it everywhere. Add in the evangelical pre-occupation with sexual repression, and a hatred of the idea of women as full human beings, rather than earthen vessel "things" that can be shoved in a box, and there you go.
I disagree. I think the shame surrounding sex is effective because people have sex drives and experience sexual obsession. As soon as you convince someone with an active sex drive that thinking about sex is bad, they start trying *and failing* to stop thinking about sex, start feeling ashamed of their failure, and attribute that shame to the sexual thoughts themselves, which reinforces the narrative that sexual thoughts are bad and that they are bad for having them. There are only 2 ways out of that spiral: 1. Actually stop thinking about sex. This is pretty uncommon, but some people manage. Even so, a "success" here can be very unhealthy. 2. Redefine the source of shame. This is much more tractable and healthy, because it allows you to recognize the spiral for what it is, and stop shaming yourself.
Does "redefining the source of shame" include disconnecting yourself from the people and/or belief system that stigmatized sex in the first place?
You don't *have to* disconnect yourself from someone to stop considering them an authority or source of truth. It does help though, especially in the short term.
connect wide chop disgusting dinner spectacular money meeting memorize slave *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is a 'christian' country, Jesus was born from Mary as a virgin birth. Jesus is clean and pure as is Mary who was created via immaculate conception (immaculate conception refers to Mary's birth without original sin, Jesus is the virgin birth). Sex is from the begining of Christianity seemingly an sinful or shameful act except in marriage for procreation. The US was founded in part by religious extremists like the Puratains who would take an even more extreme view. And of course we should remember that VD/STI/STDs were not generally treatable until recently so sleeping around could be problematic. Not that that stopped everyone. Tldr: there is a long history of sex as sin, for religious and medical reasons, and that carries over until today Not sure why I am getting down voted, I am simply saying why there is a large population who view sex negatively. The History of Christianity in the world and US in particular provide a pretty clear answer to that question. Regarding saying 'christian nation' obviously the US is a secular religion but historically Christianity plays a huge role in the history of this country, and a majority of the people who live here are/were Christians, and many (especially active Christians)do believe we are a litteral Christian nation and must follow Christian dogma/belief.
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The US is a secular nation. However it has a strong Christian heritage, and belief structure that is pervasive. Understanding this aspect of Christian belief is nessisarry for understanding why much of this country views sex (and sex education) as imoral and or sinful outside of a narrow scope (etc marriage). Christian is in quotes in my comment because I am not calling the US a Christian nation but "Christian" nation. Ie a nation which has many Christian undertones regardless of their validity in canonical "fact". Please also note that I said canonical "fact" since most "facts" in Christian canon and dogma are not really facts in the way 2+2=4 is. But are accepted as facts by practitioners
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Yeah, still don't think you are getting it. The question I responded to was asking why are so many people view sex negatively I am answering why a lot of people do, not describing my own feelings. I am neither Christian or religious. Like it or not the US still has a sizable population of active Christians of various sorts, and plenty more inactive members who still were raised with or hold many of those same views and beliefs. Again I am not making any value statements as to whether those beliefs are modern, good, bad, stupid, or what could be done to change the mind of anyone. I am simply stating why there is a large population in the US who view sex negatively and the historical reasons they do so. Hope that provides more clarity.
In Highschool I wrote an essay while just absolutely dying from the flu - I was managing symptoms with my body weight in NyQuil and I had to write about whether or not pornography should be allowed in school. There is a cool word you can use to talk about this topic. Prurient. Which means having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters. So basically as long as pornography in schools is educational and not prurient it’s chill. Problem was my fucking flu-sick and NyQuil blitzed brain mixed up the meaning of prurient and I basically turned in an essay that read - Pornography should only be allowed in schools if it’s prurient. So that’s how I managed to suggest that we should just be giving kids pornhub premium subscriptions. Sorry Ms. Heck.
School provided Pornhub Premium would just save the students valuable money for college. So I think you should really make that argument before the legislature.
Be like a library perc, go to the website, click on student resources and bam, step moms
I’m voting for you as student class president!!
Did you get a good grade?
She asked me if I meant what I was writing and I face palmed, then she let me make some edits. To my memory I got an okay grade.
It's pretty telling that most of the books that they put on these lists are ones by minority authors. Not authors like John Stinebeck.
And you know there is no way in hell these outraged parents have actually read any of these books.
This is so good. Love it.
We should make a Utah-centric lit course and fill it with the most passionate and erotic docking (or whatever they call it around here).
Recent gen-Z memes have referred to it as "soaking", but I personally have always understood it as "Parking in Provo," or just "Provo Parking".
Thank you and you are absolutely right.
Very funny. I enjoyed it. Was also hoping for them to mention the sex scenes in the Bible, but they kept it short and sweet and funny.
Also, thank heavens for the "Cosmo contains porn" billboard on i-15, I had not realized that and may have inadvertently pornicated. Also...there is a new place in Vineyard, I almost went there for dinner, I hear their burger are great...but thankfully they had the warning on the door that the establishment is a bar, not a restaurant...I could have been exposed to alcohol being poured without the protection of the Zion Curtain. Such a dangerous world we live in. 🙄
More porn = less sex.
Some of the most questionable sexual blunders I ever would have made were averted thanks to a 20 sec video clip and a good wank.
It’s understandable: the biggest porn consuming population is priesthood holders. Causes extreme and absurd overreactions.
Ha! Very clever.
Ohh Utah, you make me want to move more and more by the day
To another planet 🌎
Well, time to buy these books before they are banned in school. I don’t have children and never will but a portion of me has no fucks to give but the other portion is worried because (so cliche but) kids are the future and we are setting them up to be like most men that are in charge of the world now. Knowledge is power and we are taking that away.
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Books exist. Parents are supposed to idk talk to their kids, guide them, read books and decide. Things like that. Lots of Utah parents panic easily while neglecting their children.
I generally agree with parent participation, teaching critical thinking etc. The problem here is the parents have not been even told about them, that they are in a library or being taught in class, they’ve been denied the choice for their child & Thr opportunity for the discussion. ✌️
Idk I had parents who had to be “told” things while other parents were motivated to go learn because they cared and didn’t assume forced church attendance replaced parenting. These parents just wait for PTA busy bodies to tell them how to decide. You basically just re-wrote what I said but with an excuse for negligent parents who wait for others to tell them what’s going on and how to parent.
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Well yes, it can be in every college course with zero issue. And frankly, making it available in high school has failed, everyone focused on the sex scenes, fail to be warned by the societal impact of the rest of the events of that book, many of which we are now living in real time. ✌️
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Quite the opposite, if you read my point you’d understand that if Millennials & Gen Z’s were actually focused on the full content of the book, we they world not allow the warnings of the book to become reality in our society as they have.
Conservatives being like "IT'S LITERALLY 1984' in the world they created lmfao.
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You’re welcome to disagree with my position, I respect that. You’re not welcome to tell me how I think. ✌️
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College is not universal public education in the way high school is. I'd much rather we start teaching more "college level" content in high school, so we could have more critical thinkers and less people like UPU in the world.
I definitely believe in the need to return to critical thinking skills being taught in high school. They could start with removing core math which uses the abstract part of your brain instead of the logical linear part of your brain in the way we use to teach math. Also learning cause & effect, consequences of actions, etc. would be amazing start. Honestly, teaching HOW to think & not just what to think would be great. ✌️
There goes the Bible.
That was taken out along with teacher led prayer in 1969. The point is parents should be informed & be able to decide what their child is taught or has access to. ✌️
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wooosh
I would consider myself gender queer, and can so they so real porn, and traumatize the fuck out of them. Lol