Posted on 07/21/2004 4:58:49 AM PDT by snopercod
A few days ago my daughter related how she took my ten-year-old Grandson to the Eau Gallie, FL (near Melbourne) public library to check out some books. She turned him loose in the kids' section while she looked for some books for herself.
A while later, they each took their stack of books to the counter, checked them out, and went home. My daughter didn't inspect his choices any farther than the covers - big mistake. This is one of the books he chose (cool cover, right?):
"Meet Rally and Minnie-May -- The Gunsmith Cats -- two of the most fun-loving, well-armed, bounty-hunting women in Chicago! Whether they're chasing bail jumpers or fending off the mob, you can bet on a healthy supply of guns, bombs, car chases, and more guns! In this 176-page trade paperback -- collecting issues 1 through 6 of the series -- the pair run afoul of Bonnie and Clyde, a couple of hired guns working mob jobs in the Windy City. With their business interests running on opposite sides of the law, it's no surprise that the net result is gunfire and mayhem!"
Later in the day, Grandson shows Mom what's inside the book. Her eyes got big and her jaw dropped. Splattered across an entire page was a lewd sex act of the monica kind in graphic detail captioned with "OOOH, yeah!", "Oh Babe...!", MMPH!, etc.
My daughter turned some more pages and found episodes of cop killing, cocaine sniffing, drug dealing, prostitution, and normal, head-banging sex ("Twenty friggin' times" to quote the John) - all punctuated with assorted gutter language. There's a frame in there that even I can't figure out. Some guy is apparently performing fallatio on his gun barrel. His tongue is licking the side of it with the caption, "hahh...ahhh...huhh".
It turns out that "fun loving" character Minnie-May Hopkins portrays an underaged prostitute. Nice.
You know, I'm not a prude and not a "social conservative". But what the heck is a book like this doing in a public library at all, let alone in the childrens' section?
My daughter went back and talked to the woman at the desk, who thought this book was completely suitable, apparently. When asked why it was in the childrens' section, she said, "Oh this was probably misfiled. It should have been in the teenage section". When asked why it was in the library at all, the woman responded, "Because it's popular with the kids". Well hell, why not throw in a couple of beers with each book; That's popular with the kids, too.
I hope my daughter follows up on this. I recommended that she write a letter (with copies of the offending pages) to the Brevard County Supervisors and ask them why her tax dollars were being used to purchase this crap and push it on her children.
This sexualization of our children and early introduction to casual violence is a horrible outcome of years of liberalism in this country. We have been paying the price for many years in terms of devaluing human life.
A shocking story! And thanks for taking action on this. Unfortunately, you probably can't expect any action from the public library on this. I suggest checking the book out and destroying it.
In Brevard there will be a reaction. This will be fun.
You lucky there was nothing in there on beastiality or 'safe' rimming. Those topics are covered in the web sites recommended by the American Library Association for teenagers. The ALA believes that parents don't do their job in providing sex education and insists that they step in and help all these oppressed teenagers.
Yeah, I'm all for book burning, too! I say we should just burn ALL potentially offending books.
Porn anime in the kids section? Not cool.
Take a video camera down there and see if you can find some more. Then save the video to disc and provide a copy to the local news. That will get their attention.
Check this out!
Actually, my daughter told me she thought of doing exactly that. But that wouldn't address the problem of the people who selected that book for our children. The head librarian should be called to account for her choice (I am assuming it's a woman, but haven't checked yet.)
My daughter turned some more pages and found episodes of cop killing, cocaine sniffing, drug dealing, prostitution, and normal, head-banging sex ("Twenty friggin' times" to quote the John) - all punctuated with assorted gutter language. There's a frame in there that even I can't figure out. Some guy is apparently performing fallatio on his gun barrel. His tongue is licking the side of it with the caption, "hahh...ahhh...huhh".
And I know a certain liberal (perverted) librarian (Hi Vicki you miserable wretch. Grow a spine witch) who despises children basically anti-family who moved to the Florida panhandle who would defend this type of kiddie porn comic book. She's probably ordering stacks to fill her library cuz GOSH, it's all about free speech.
Hopefully a shark eats her, soon!
1: Bonnie and Clyde
2: Misfire
3: The Return of Gray
4: Goldie versus Misty
5: Bad Trip
6: Bean Bandit
7: Kidnapped
8: Mister V
9: Misty's Run
There could be, I just don't know.
Is there a Central Florida ping list that you know of?
Is this one of the Japanese anime "non-porn" porns? A fellow who was once a missionary to Japan has told me that the Japanese rule is that if the naked figure has no pubic hair, then no matter how wild its activities are it's not counted as porn. And our own SCOTUS has capped that by saying that if it's not a photo of a real person it's not counted as porn either.
Gunsmith Cats is a Japanese manga (graphic novel). It is intended for older audiences, NOT children. Many people instantly assume that just because something is animated or drawn, it is appropriate for children. Your librarian made this same mistake.
I watched the Gunsmith Cats OAV a long time ago. The manga might have been different but it didn't have nudity. The majority of manga and anime are no more different than the American "Superhero" comics which will feature very big chests and very little skin.
In fact I stopped reading American comics when one comic featured a jay-naked Bush sobbing & surrendering at Magneto's feet.
There is an easy solution. Find the books, take them to the Librarian, and say you want to challenge them. All library systems have ways for customers to remove or reclassify items. We do it occationally. I do it occationally without customers asking (But thats part of my job) These items should be in an adult section, at the minimum. Most librarians would like to know that this type of material isn't appropriate, but, can't always look at every book. Its up to the customers to point things out to them. The selectors order hundreds of items at a time, they can't read every book.
As for stealing the book or checking it out and destroying it, that will get your privilages removed. Its also sending a VERY bad message to children that its ok to steal. Why steal or damage the item when the library has a method of removing the item in place?
My apologies--I didn't see the part about the Lewinsky act--that is definitely NOT "normal" for mainstream manga. That is indeed disgusting...
We have graphic novels in the library where I work and they all go to adult non-fiction just to be on the safe side. We are just beginning to add these to our collection and are trying to keep on the lighter side of the genre - like Superman, Batman, and Justice League.
This needs to be called to the attention of the library director. It could have been an honest mistake. A lot of libraries have standing order plans and just get whatever the publishers think are the popular titles. We have a plan like that but I always check the graphic novels before we put them out because like you said too many people think they are all for kids because it's a comic.
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