Dirty Penguins
Okay… it was ridiculous when the Christian Right was trying to claim March of the Penguins as a treatise on heterosexual monogamy… and it’s ridiculous now that a children’s book called And Tango Makes 3 about two male penguins who raised a baby penguin is 2006’s most contested book:
Paternal Penguins Pique Parents
An award-winning children’s book based on the true story of two male penguins who reared a baby penguin stands atop the American Library Association’s annual list of works that drew the most complaints from parents, library patrons and others, The Associated Press reported. Published in 2005, the book, “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, with illustrations by Henry Cole (Simon & Schuster), was named one of that year’s best by the association. But some parents and educators complained that it advocated homosexuality. In all, the number of books challenged last year was 546, compared with 406 in 2005, but low in contrast to the figures recorded in the mid-1990s, when challenges exceeded 750 a year. The American Library Association defines a challenge as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.” Other books on the 2006 list included the Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison’s “Bluest Eye” and her Pulitzer Prize-winning “Beloved,” both challenged for language and sexual content. Judith Krug, director of the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, said 30 books were banned last year. (NY Times)
Okay, while I personally don’t see why it’s so tricky to just accept people as they are and grant human rights across the board, I understand that many people see gender relations as a volatile and tricky subject. BUT THESE ARE PENGUINS, PEOPLE! They’re not dictating our morality… they’re waddling. They’re not setting a good or a heinous example… they’re pretty much still waddling.
Apparently we have nothing better to do than to blame penguins for all the ills of the world. But, you know, if we’re going to take lessons from penguins, let’s take the lesson that they don’t seem to be paying attention to any of this. Just keep waddling.
