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Re: How much do we tell the children
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From: Ellen Levine <ellenlev_at_verizon.net>
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:19:26 -0500
In my nonfiction book FREEDOM'S CHILDREN, not only is there the story of Emmett Till, but all the blacks I interviewed, who described their experiences as young people (ranging in age from 5 to 19) during the civil rights movement, were well aware of all the killings and brutalizations. They certainly knew about Till, but also the murder of white adults like Viola Liuzzo -- One African-American teen at the time told me, "she was a part of the family."
My recently published novel IN TROUBLE took quite a while to sell. It's the story of teen pregnancy, which is perfectly okay, but the story includes abortion, which is not. This is not an author not willing to tell, but self-censorship in publishing and media in general (adult as well as for young people). I was actually shocked at the degree of self-censorship going on. The Juno syndrome is alive and well, i.e., bring the fetus to term. But that's it. Even the soap "All My Children," which had an episode with a legal abortion not long after Roe v. Wade in 1973, thirty-three years later rewrote that show to say it never really happened: the fetus was in fact "kidnapped" and implanted in another woman who brought it to term! (Talk about our love of fantasy.) In this world where one in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime, where teen pregnancy is a serious problem, we're largely kept from talking about it. So my question is how much are they letting us tell the children. As someone noted, vampires
killing is fine, but the real stuff, mental and physical…
Ellen www.ellenlevineauthor.com
Received on Tue 22 Nov 2011 12:19:26 PM CST
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:19:26 -0500
In my nonfiction book FREEDOM'S CHILDREN, not only is there the story of Emmett Till, but all the blacks I interviewed, who described their experiences as young people (ranging in age from 5 to 19) during the civil rights movement, were well aware of all the killings and brutalizations. They certainly knew about Till, but also the murder of white adults like Viola Liuzzo -- One African-American teen at the time told me, "she was a part of the family."
My recently published novel IN TROUBLE took quite a while to sell. It's the story of teen pregnancy, which is perfectly okay, but the story includes abortion, which is not. This is not an author not willing to tell, but self-censorship in publishing and media in general (adult as well as for young people). I was actually shocked at the degree of self-censorship going on. The Juno syndrome is alive and well, i.e., bring the fetus to term. But that's it. Even the soap "All My Children," which had an episode with a legal abortion not long after Roe v. Wade in 1973, thirty-three years later rewrote that show to say it never really happened: the fetus was in fact "kidnapped" and implanted in another woman who brought it to term! (Talk about our love of fantasy.) In this world where one in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime, where teen pregnancy is a serious problem, we're largely kept from talking about it. So my question is how much are they letting us tell the children. As someone noted, vampires
killing is fine, but the real stuff, mental and physical…
Ellen www.ellenlevineauthor.com
Received on Tue 22 Nov 2011 12:19:26 PM CST
