Brian Damage
09-13-2009, 08:33 PM
A number of Australian primary schools have reportedly banned Stephanie Meyer’s hit Twilight vampire book series because the content is too sexual and goes against religious beliefs.
In Australia, primary schools teach children up to the age of about 12, after which they move onto secondary school. In some other countries primary schools are described as elementary schools.
The Twilight series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, according to Wikipedia, and is being made into a film series, with audiences enthralled by the love story between American teen Bella and Edward Cullen, a former human who was transformed into a vampire.
But, reports Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph, a number of primary schools in New South Wales have banned the series or restricted it to older readers:
“Librarians have stripped the books from shelves in some junior schools because they believe the content is too sexual and goes against religious beliefs … Santa Sabina College at Strathfield was so concerned about the Twilight craze that teachers ran a seminar for Year 6 students to discuss sexual and supernatural themes in the books.”
Commentary
I don’t have much idea what books are and aren’t allowed in Australian primary schools, although I would assume that most content which would fall under the Australian ‘M’ classification would not be encouraged, for the simple reason that content at those levels is not recommended for those under 15 years of age. This would preclude all Australian primary school students.
The question, I guess, is does Twilight fall into this category?
If you read the guidelines for the classification of publications in Australia, a task carried out by the Australian Classification Board, it seems fairly clear that literature falling into the unrestricted category (which includes the M rating as an option) must be discreet in its depictions of sex and violence, and such depictions must be low impact.
Does Twilight contain low impact depictions of sex and violence? Undoubtedly, by Australian standards, yes. There are no real overt sex scenes; Twilight is more about romance. And while there is violence in the book, it’s not really graphic; in fact sometimes it’s almost cartoonish (vampires fighting isn’t that scary compared to many modern day movies kids watch).
However, the fact remains that the books do contain some level of sex and violence. Thus, they’re probably not that appropriate, as The Daily Telegraph mentions, for many primary school students.
Of course, some primary school students might consider Twilight a bit lightweight. I remember reading The Lord of the Rings and Ender’s Game when I was 11 or 12. The sorts of content in those books is a lot more psychologically disturbing and adult than you would find in Twilight, although I can’t see them ever being banned. Of course, I borrowed the books myself from our city library or my father’s collection, not from my school.
One final note: it’s not really clear from the article exactly where schools feel Twilight would offend religious beliefs. But I would suggest while banning books containing sexual behaviour could be legitimate, banning books because they go against religious beliefs is a whole other kettle of fish. Touchy ground, that.
http://www.keepingthedoor.com/2009/09/13/australian-schools-ban-twilight-series/
In Australia, primary schools teach children up to the age of about 12, after which they move onto secondary school. In some other countries primary schools are described as elementary schools.
The Twilight series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, according to Wikipedia, and is being made into a film series, with audiences enthralled by the love story between American teen Bella and Edward Cullen, a former human who was transformed into a vampire.
But, reports Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph, a number of primary schools in New South Wales have banned the series or restricted it to older readers:
“Librarians have stripped the books from shelves in some junior schools because they believe the content is too sexual and goes against religious beliefs … Santa Sabina College at Strathfield was so concerned about the Twilight craze that teachers ran a seminar for Year 6 students to discuss sexual and supernatural themes in the books.”
Commentary
I don’t have much idea what books are and aren’t allowed in Australian primary schools, although I would assume that most content which would fall under the Australian ‘M’ classification would not be encouraged, for the simple reason that content at those levels is not recommended for those under 15 years of age. This would preclude all Australian primary school students.
The question, I guess, is does Twilight fall into this category?
If you read the guidelines for the classification of publications in Australia, a task carried out by the Australian Classification Board, it seems fairly clear that literature falling into the unrestricted category (which includes the M rating as an option) must be discreet in its depictions of sex and violence, and such depictions must be low impact.
Does Twilight contain low impact depictions of sex and violence? Undoubtedly, by Australian standards, yes. There are no real overt sex scenes; Twilight is more about romance. And while there is violence in the book, it’s not really graphic; in fact sometimes it’s almost cartoonish (vampires fighting isn’t that scary compared to many modern day movies kids watch).
However, the fact remains that the books do contain some level of sex and violence. Thus, they’re probably not that appropriate, as The Daily Telegraph mentions, for many primary school students.
Of course, some primary school students might consider Twilight a bit lightweight. I remember reading The Lord of the Rings and Ender’s Game when I was 11 or 12. The sorts of content in those books is a lot more psychologically disturbing and adult than you would find in Twilight, although I can’t see them ever being banned. Of course, I borrowed the books myself from our city library or my father’s collection, not from my school.
One final note: it’s not really clear from the article exactly where schools feel Twilight would offend religious beliefs. But I would suggest while banning books containing sexual behaviour could be legitimate, banning books because they go against religious beliefs is a whole other kettle of fish. Touchy ground, that.
http://www.keepingthedoor.com/2009/09/13/australian-schools-ban-twilight-series/