On November 14, a 20-year-old woman named Lanah Burkhardt appeared before the school board of the Conroe Independent School District in Texas. Burkhardt told the board that, when she was 11, she read a Scholastic book that introduced her to "a single kiss." According to Burkhardt, her exposure to th...
“ Burkhardt's appearance was promoted by SkyTree Book Fairs, a newly formed organization marketing itself as "an alternative to the sexually explicit content distributed in Scholastic's book fairs."”
While SkyTree Book Fairs presents itself as an independent non-profit organization, it appears to be a hastily assembled offshoot of Brave Books, which publishes children's books by right-wing pundits and pseudo-celebrities.
Burkhardt's gambit has already had an impact. The Conroe school board, after listening to her story, voted to restrict access to Drama, the Scholastic book featuring a kiss, from all students in the 8th grade and below. One of the school board members, Melissa Dungan, suggested replacing Scholastic with SkyTree Book Fairs. "All glory to God," Burkhardt posted in response to the news.
I love using that story to counter the "modern books are smut, have kids read the Bible" folks. Either that or the story of Dinah.
To those who don't know it. Dinah was raped. Her rapist decided he wanted to marry her and, being such a "nice guy," asked her brothers for permission. They agreed, but only if he and all men in the town were circumcised. The guy agreed and, being the prince, ordered all men to get circumcised. When all the men were "indisposed," the brothers came in, killed all the men, took the women and children as slaves, and took all their possessions.
Their father, Jacob, was angry with how they acted because they "caused trouble" and it could result in other tribes attacking them. Apparently, he was fine with his daughter being raped because the story just moves on to other things.
So this is just a normal everyday kid's story with rape, theft, and murder! Perfectly acceptable for any child to read because at least two guys didn't kiss!!!
It's likely just a nothing excuse to ban the scholastic book fair and replace it with the "faith based children's" books company mentioned in the article.
Especially no bible. The amount of sex (including butt stuff), incest, wanking, murder, and torture in there would surely have every conservative parent in an uproar
What about holding hands? Does that lead to porn addictions also?
Oh, and the Frog Prince involved kissing a frog. Some frogs produce hallucinogenic substances so kissing them can get you high. Therefore, reading that book leads to drug addictions! It's a two-fer!
It's been so long ago that I don't remember what I bought from them. I read loads of books when Inwas a kid. Though I don't think I bought any of the "how to draw" series.
Reminder that "porn addiction" is not a thing. Sexual addiction is, porn addiction was invented by conservative/religious weirdos who think masturbation is "sinful." Religions are especially glib about calling things "porn and addiction" without justification. They want you to think you're sick, so they can provide you the "cure."
Just because you enjoy looking at porn and/or masturbating regularly doesn't mean you have a sexual addiction. If you have trouble maintaining employment or relationships because of your habits, you might, and you should talk it over with a secular licensed psychologist to make that determination and decide the best way to address it.
Not to be pedantic, but the DSM is not the final word on the existence of different disorders. It is a tool to help doctors do their jobs.
You won't find Religious Trauma Syndrome in the DSM either, yet it is still recognized as a thing by a growing number of professionals. This example is still being discussed as to whether it should be its own category or if it should be rolled into CPTSD.
So I would demure to the consensus of practicing psychologists, not the DSM.
The Conroe school board, after listening to her story, voted to restrict access to Drama, the Scholastic book featuring a kiss, from all students in the 8th grade and below.
Bruh, in 8th grade the girl sitting next to me in science class told me she liked the smell of my pubescent BO and offered to blow me under the lab bench. Also in sex ed I had a very clear view of some girl giving her boyfriend a foot job under the table. Also 9/11 happened that year. I'll give you three guesses which one was the most traumatic.
she liked the smell of my pubescent BO and offered to blow me under the lab bench. Also in sex ed I had a very clear view of some girl giving her boyfriend a foot job under the table
that's not sexualizing kids, though. it's only sexualizing kids if it's queer.
Don't worry, everyone got called a fag at least once a week. I'm sure none of us ended up gay. Also there was one black kid and he got arrested for weed.
It's a slippery slope from learning that love and romance exists to porn addiction and blowing homeless dudes in an alley. This is why we must never teach children that affection exists. Only hate.
Right, I laughed so hard. There were so many rude and crude kids books back in the day. Things far more controversial than a kiss. These people have actually lost it. And unfortunately so has at least one board member.
Debilitating addictions are an illness. Should we kill all of the bees because some people are severely allergic? I can understand the mysterious woman feeling that way, but the sane response is treatment of the few susceptible, not prohibition for all the rest.
She's the marketing officer for a right-wing competitor to Scholastic. I am doubtful she has a porn addiction in the first place, and I'm 100% sure it wasn't "sparked" by Scholastic books for kids. And if it was, I submit her problem is different than she thinks it is.
Pretty sure there's way more worse things that on network TV, orjust youtube and the internet in general. Assuming she's not just making shit up, she would've encountered way more worse stuff in life. If not a scholastic book showing a kiss, she would've seen it somewhere else.