You Say Scrotum, I Say Hoo-Ha

Squeamish school librarians, screaming at a single word they deemed "offensive," have put the screws to a scrumptious award-winning children's book called, of all things, The Higher Power of Lucky.

Have our public-knowledge custodians lost their scruples?

With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar

by Julie Bosman

The word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children’s literature, for that matter...

Yet there it is on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky,” by Susan Patron, this year’s winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature. The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.

“'Scrotum' sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,” the book continues. “It sounded medical and secret, but also important.”

The inclusion of the word has shocked some school librarians, who have pledged to ban the book from elementary schools, and reopened the debate over what constitutes acceptable content in children’s books...

"This book included what I call a Howard-Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn’t have the children in mind,” Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango, Colo., wrote on LM_Net, a mailing list that reaches more than 16,000 school librarians. “How very sad.”...

Andrea Koch, the librarian at French Road Elementary School in Brighton, N.Y., said she anticipated angry calls from parents if she ordered it. “I don’t think our teachers, or myself, want to do that vocabulary lesson,” she said in an interview...

Ms. Nilsson, reached at Sunnyside Elementary School in Durango, Colo., said she had heard from dozens of librarians who agreed with her stance. “I don’t want to start an issue about censorship,” she said. “But you won’t find men’s genitalia in quality literature.”

Let's uncover the anatomy of a literary sex panic, shall we?

A couple dozen prudes got squicked-out, starting with the strangely un-investigated Ms. Nilsson, who is leading the tiny parade of shocked citizens. Reporter Bosman and the Times kicked up the rest of the shocking-pink dust, without diligent reporting.

Ms. Nilsson isn't just a "teacher," she's a leader from the Durango Christian Science Church. When the media reports on issues of language or sexual attitudes and customs, it's incumbent on them to inquire about their informant's religious background and how it affects their decision-making. Who cares what Dana Nilsson thinks about librarianship, if her first priority is her Scriptural views of morality?

This story has pushed the Flying Spaghetti Monster envelope. Ever since Kansas ruled against evolution, and our current President encouraged a world-view that was created in seven days, there is a sense among scientific and empirically-minded Americans that our educational system has lost its marbles. These people, including myself, are the majority, not the Sunday School of the Week Club. We're easily alarmed by any evidence that we've have been swallowed into a Jonah's Whale of a fairy tale that never stops spouting off.

The Times' sample of quotes reveal a group of obvious religious conservatives who betray more about their own ignorance, phobias, and lack of library professionalism than they do about the state of the English vocabulary— in literature or social life.

Anyone who says that "male genitalia are not in quality literature" needs to have their resumé examined. What's more, this is hardly the first time that the word "scrotum" has appeared in children's books. Think again, Ms. Bosman!

Children's libraries, librarians, and authors are being smeared in stories like these. Children's Lit is a field that includes the greatest writers of all time, speaking on every topic, with every nuance of language. I'm sure E.B. White is turning over in his grave to contemplate this canard, one that Templeton the Rat wouldn't scratch his testes with.

The story ran on the Times front page. At my last view, about 500 people had written into the paper's web site to protest the stink of pre-emptive censorship:

   ...Most school librarians do not possess a Master of Library Studies — most are teachers who wound up working in the school library. And doubtless the “librarians” quoted in this article are of a certain political persuasion.            
    Extremely few bona fide (MLS) librarians (e.g. those in public libraries) would ever consider banning this book.
— Posted by Larry McCallum

    Librarian Frederick Muller’s comment is an example of the selfishness of the opposition:
    “If I were a third- or fourth-grade teacher, I wouldn’t want to have to explain that.”
    If there is one teacher out there who cannot put this book in context for a third-grader because of their own squeamishness over the word “scrotum”, then our entire education system has been left behind.
    What is the right grade for Mr. Muller to teach this book to so he won’t be embarrassed of his own human condition?
— Posted by Tom

    Back in the 70’s when my daughter was in second grade she raised her hand for permission to go to the bathroom. The young first-year teacher asked her if she needed to go “number one or number two.”
    My daughter replied, “Neither, my vagina itches and I need to scratch it, then wash my hands.”
    I received a call from the teacher to discuss my daughter’s language in class. I, of course, imagined the worst, as I had often heard some pretty foul language in the schoolyard when I dropped her at school in the mornings.   
    When the teacher told me what my daughter had said I almost laughed out loud; but I very politely asked her what the problem was, as my daughter had answered her question honestly and with the correct anatomical word.
    She informed me that a lot of parents didn’t want their children knowing words like these, and didn’t I have some “cute little family name for it.”
    I told her, no, we didn’t, and that I thought the whole thing ridiculous. She was not happy with me, and apparently spoke to the school principal who called me the next day to apologize. It was silly then and it is silly now.
— Posted by Constance Ledlow

Most librarians are not tight-lipped prudes, they're courageous front-liners on First Amendment issues. Most families are nonchalant about the daily-observed behavior of their dogs and cats. Parents— who are not in the grips of fundamentalist fever— believe it's helpful for young people to know the correct terms for their own body parts, be they a nose, elbow, vulva, or scrotum.

Yes, some parents are shy. My own mother was too timid to say "vagina" out loud, but she was even more disgusted with the damage done to her as a young girl— "the devil makes you bleed down there because you've sinned," etc.

So she went to the LIBRARY, and got a children's book for me about "how babies are born," one that used perfect English anatomical vocabulary. That was 1968— I wonder if you could find that book at Sunnyside Elementary today.

It's difficult to discuss bodies, sex, and reproduction with anyone, if you fear your own — or believe that an almighty power will strike you down with a word. If Howard Stern is Ms. Nilsson's only exposure to public sexual discussion, she might indeed be distorted. A book like Lucky, that would quietly and kindly inform a young person's point of view, is a nothing less than a Godsend! ...If you'll excuse my French.

The religious right needs to stop breaking everyone's balls— but the fact that they have, so impressively, in every school system and public forum in the country, has made reasonable thinkers everywhere shake in their boots. Lucky's snakebite is nothing to worry about— but it is one more venomous nail in the coffin of enlightenment.

Illustration by Garth Williams from E.B. White's Charlotte's Web.

Comments

[Sandrino]

And what exactly is wrong with the word scrotum? Would they be happier if the author had referred to it as a ball sack? Scrotum is not a dirty word, it isn't offensive, noy any more so than anus, vagina or elbow. These prudes need to get out more and work on their vocabularies. If they read any books beside the bible once in a while, perhaps they would learn that scrotum is the proper name of a part of the mammalian anatomy. Its not inherently dirty or obscene. The problem with these prudes is that they have negative attitudes towards sex and any reference to the nether regions is to them filthy. They are the ones who need to get their minds out of the gutter. Illiterate prudes cannot be allowed to determine what our children can or cannot read.

[Lolita Wolf]

I don't understand why a teacher would ask if the kid had to go "number one or number two." Isn't that kind of question inappropriate?

[Steve]

Thank you Susie for consistently championing the librarian. So many people don't realize the importance of the battle librarians wage every day to keep useful books on the shelves. It's so important, yet so often overlooked or undervalued.

The best thing everyone can do to grant the world a favor is to write a letter to your school asking them to add the book to their collection so your child can read it and see the proper word used in the proper manner in a proper children's story. If we are ever to beat these a-holes, we have to be proactive, and play the same game. If we don't, we lose ground. That's what has been slowly, steadily, chipping away at our civil liberties. It is not enough to just ignore the christian wrong hoping they will go away. It is counterproductive to try to engage them in dialogue. You *must* go out and ask for this kind of material to be on the shelves, and back it up with support for the librarian if (and when) they get in trouble.

[Erin]

I sell kids books. I take my job seriously and I have sold this very book several times and with a clear conscience. I read it, read the word in question and several thousand others between this book's covers. They all come together to make a good story.

Let's get the cheap jokes out of the way right off the bat, eh? "Scrotum" is linguistically delightful, from the way it weighs on your palate to the way it just rolls off the tongue.

Now lets discuss a couple of other odds & ends...

1)The scrotum in question belongs to a dog. And they are worried about the sexual connotations? Ew.

2)If you are a man, and you find yourself with your genetalia in the literature then you are not doing something right. I read with my eyes, personally. If you are going to be quoted in a national publication choose your words carefully. Kids could be reading this stuff. A librarian worth his/her salt should know enough language to wield it properly.

3)Kids reading this book would be pre-sexual. Not tuned in to the possibilities of of genetalia in the same way that us adults are. It's a different world.

[LustyLioness]

It never ceases to boggle my mind how upset those fundamentalists get by the most mundane things.

Worse, is the herd mentality. It's like one of them is offended by something and tells the rest of them it's bad. Since they are all too busy with work, kids and church obligations to actually view what that "bad" thing has done to offend, they just say, "Dana is a good Christian and she's a librarian, she must be smart! Therefore, she must be right! I'll just side with her so I don't have to actually think."

I think I just realized why a congregation is often refered to as "a flock."

[Steve]

I have something more to say: There has been an increasing number of religious right nut jobs who are getting degrees in librarianship and such just so they can censor shit. It's amazing. Even the first lady, who calls herself a librarian, has supported censorship. I don't know her credentials, but it wouldn't surprise me if she was really a school media specialist.

Everyone wants to claim the title of librarian, by the way. It happens all the time. One of the biggest difficulties with our profession is that almost anyone can get away with that - you work in a library? Oh, you're a librarian.

Who would ever dream of doing calling the person behind the desk at the hospital Dr.? If the individual working in the library does not have the degree, they are NOT a librarian, they are a CLERK.

America's educational system lost its marbles decades ago.

Am I the only one here old enough to remember "New Math?"

"This so-called 'New Math' has brought me college freshmen who are aware of set theory and the Commutative Law, but never learned the multiplication tables." --Dr. George Simmons, in the preface to "Precalculus Mathematics in a Nutshell"

The American educational system has been a farce for generations.

Everything important about teaching six-year-olds to read, write, and do arithmetic was known in the 1830s, i.e., the McGuffey Reader and associated textbooks. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING--"New Math," Ritalin, "self-esteem," laptops for third-graders, "outcome-based education," 1990s "New New Math"--beyond that is a racket to keep Ed.Ds in their jobs, keep their paychecks coming, and maintain the monopoly stranglehold the teachers' unions have on every local government in the country.

This is one of the reasons why I'm childfree, incidentally. To bring a child into the world and subject him or her to this kind of ghastly McEducation would be an act of irresponsible cruelty.

[C.S. Lewiston]

What Steve just said. Kind of like those Dominionists who "stealth" their way onto local school boards, just like their daddy, Pat Robertson tells them to (according to Chris Hedges, Evangelical or Fundamentalist is not the proper word for the new breed of religio-fascists infesting our public institutions).

[misterniceguy1960]

As with the "Hoohoodillie Monologues", we are forced to ask, "What word *should* we use, if the proper and correct one is not allowed?"

The answer, of course, is that they don't want us to speak freely and without shame at all, in any vocabulary. They want us to whisper and giggle nervously, or better yet just shut up and let our needs go unanswered.

Sorry, folks, not interested in playing your game of shame. We are going to speak up clearly, in clear and direct language, and anybody who doesn't like it can bite my scrotum.

[Mary Branscombe]

At the moment stories like this are making me think of the Harvard Business Review's 20 thoughts for 2007, among which is the notion that fundamentalism is by nature cyclical and will by nature keep coming back because fundamentalism implies fertility and they're going to keep outbreeding the liberal intelligentsia. Scary much...

[HotMovies]

Wow... cant Ms. Nilsson the christian scientist just rely on faith and prayer and god to take care of the childrens' souls and heal any psychological scarring inflicted by the word 'scrotum'?

[John Graham]

It's a shame you had to take an anti-Christian tone with this piece. I happen to be a Christian and I was not raised by the kind of parents that would object to this kind literature. I also have no problem with using the word "scrotum" in a children's book. If you decribed to most little kids what a scrotum is, they'd probably say, "Oh, you mean your nuts?" (which they've probably heard their dad say a hundred times)

The people who are objecting to this book may be a branch of Christianity that is very fundamentalist in nature, but they hardly speak for all Christians - certainly not for me. If we can't get over stereotyping groups of people in this country, we're in big trouble. BTW, most Christians I know are pretty sharp, and open-minded, people. Try making it through theological seminary or getting your PHD in theology. Not an easy feat. I have a healthy respect for an athiest who has thought out his/her position and taken a stand. I only wish they would grant me that same respect.

Ultimately, I agree with you in principle. I wish these people would get a life and leave other people alone.

[Craig Au]

scrotum?
totem.
rectum?
hell, it killed 'em!
orange?
door hinge!
c'mon folks, just because someone objects to something so meaningless and silly, does not mean it warrants taking us away from more serious issues such as war rants!
I love you Susie...muah!

[Steve]

John - I could give a shit about people who believe in God. I run screaming from people who try to make me believe in THEIR god, and who use THEIR god as an excuse to curb my liberty. Unfortunately, in MY experience, that includes a healthy majority of those who call themselves christian. You may not fall into that camp. Good for you. But don't blame me if my encounters with so-called christians has been pretty much negative. I try to be open minded, and have known many christians who don't behave in such manner, but it seems that a basic underlying value of christianity is "I'm right, you're wrong." The added corollary, often left basically unspoken is "And you're going to hell." Having grown up in a family with those values, how could I help but to reverse that and think it of all christians?

[Rich]

The good news is that it got the word "scrotum" printed in the Times. That's why all efforts at censorship will eventually backfire. How do you talk about the use of the word "scrotum" without uttering the word "scrotum"?

[jon Bailiff]

In as much an islamist can be deeply anti-islamic, so too can christians behave in anti-christian, intolerant and arrogant ways. We see the pervaders of false doctrine killing the innocent all over the world every day.

It is the fault or worship, that instills in the mind of the worshipper, the notion that they are on to something special, something that awakens a "superior beingness" in themselves. This is the root of the superannuated bullshit logic that saysm "I'm special and you're not".

"Stop worshipping and start loving!" is what I say to anyone who feels the religious urge to superimpose their fantasy on my reality.

[Teresa]

As a writer myself, it makes me want to hire actors to portray stodgy Christians-of-a-certain-ilk to say how disgusting my work is, loudly and in public. Great publicity.(After all, I'd never have heard of this book if they hadn't created such a flap over it, and now my goddessdaughter is likely to get it as a random "hey kid,I miss you" present.)

Thanks for the free advertising, silly fundies.

[Laurie D. T. Mann]

I haven't bought a kid's picture book in quite a few years (given my daughter is 26 and shows no sign of procreating any time soon), but I think I'll have to buy this one...

Someone uptopic was complaining about the "anti-Christian" tone of Susie's commentary. While I certainly would never speak for Susie, most of the stupid censorship in this country has come from "Christians." In some areas, it's starting to come from Orthodox Jews and conservative Muslims. But the vast, vast majority of people who harass libraries and bookstores (and I've worked in bookstores, on and off, since the '70s) are "Christians." They're the ones whining about "scrotum." They're the ones whining about "Heather Has Two Mommies." They're the ones who whine about Judy Blume. They're the ones who whine about "To Kill a Mockingbird." About the only book they don't whine about is "Huckleberry Finn," and that's the book that equally wrong-headed people but from the other end of the political spectrum whine about.

Bah to anyone trying to censor anything, including those ugly polemics that the looney fringes keep promoting. Censorship, ultimately, is evil.

[taryn]

I'll admit the real possibility that only a tiny fraction of christians in this country are fundamentalist bigots, just as a tiny fraction of muslims are suicidal lunatics, a tiny fraction of jews, wasps, democrats, and republicans are warmongering neocons, etc...

But if you subscribe to an ideology, particularly one purported to be of peace and tolerance, you must share responsibility if your ideology is used to justify hateful action. "...they hardly speak for all Christians - certainly not for me. ..." It is specifically the "pretty sharp, and open-minded" supporters of an ideology who should be first to speak against bigots and hatemongers hiding behind that ideology.

Why aren't all the 'good christians' out in the front lines, defending the constitution? For that matter why aren't they defending the gospels against those who would misuse them so badly? Why do most sit quietly by and and allow hate-mongers to speak for them? Why does the defense of civil rights fall to 'liberals', to 'atheists', to the 'godless'?

Where are your voices?

[ElizabethT45]

When I found this book at our tiny Township Library, I knew I had to check it out just to see what all the fuss was about. And now that I have read the book, I am saddened that such a charming story about a little girl trying to find her place in her world was reduced to a diatribe about the anatomically correct word for a body part.

I would love to read more books about Lucky Trimble and her family.

[elise]

i'll get this book so my son can know his genitals are not naughty, I also hear it is a charming book. I think if I can, give it to him to read, then send him walking into the very libraries that it was banned from the shelves in, and have him sit down to read it in front of those so-called 'librarians'
censorship is not what librarians do, it is what book-burners do!

[elise]

To purposly keep children ignorant of the words vagina, scrotum, anus, or whatever, is a terrible act of cencorship, it is depriving children of the truth, and I won't lie to my son. he's 4 months old, but when he's old enough to start asking, "mommy, where do babies come from?" and "what does daddy use condoms for?" i'll tell the simple truth. I've even got his ultrasound on video to show him, as well as pictures of his birth.
to keep children in ignorance is to do them the greatest disservice as we who are supposed to be their guides and teachers, and most of all, parents in this scary world. i'm homeschooling him.
my frriends are doing the same and we will be bringing our kids to the park for social interaction.

[R.D.]

Time to round up the Lions and the Christians once again.... We already have the arenas we just need to implement the act.....

Aloha

[John A Arkansawyer]

Our local NPR station here in Arkansas (no, not up there, down here ran a very nice review of this book.

Next time you come to Arkansas, you should come down here to the civilized part of the state. By the way, somewhere (if they haven't rotted) I've still got the tapes of your lecture. I'll try to get you a copy.