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RE: Portland Press article and editorial about gns in school
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Katharine Kan
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Mar 18, 2005 16:05 PST
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What gets me in the article is that it mentions King Middle School has "as
many as 400 graphic novels" in the collection, but it only mentions the
titles that would get a rise out of many parents.
I tell people the following story when I do presentations about graphic
novels and they ask me about manga and "objectionable" content. I
introduced my son to Ranma 1/2 back in 1994 - he was 11 years old. We both
thought the books were absolutely hilarious, and he had no problems
whatsoever with the partial nudity. The next year, in 7th grade, he took
the first volume to school and showed it to his classmates. They all
thought it was great, and most of them started going to the stores to find
the books for themselves. Then some of them started getting the anime on
VHS and sharing those. The most rabid Ranma 1/2 fan was a girl. None of
the parents ever made a complaint. And this was in a private school run by
a church. It was in Hawaii, which probably explains it right there. Most
of the kids in my son's class were Asian American or mixed-race like him.
When we moved to Indiana and I started to get some complaints from parents
at the public library about having Ranma1/2 in YA, I asked my son, now in
high school, about it. He scoffed that anyone should worry about anything
in the books - "they're totally silly, and anyone who reads them should see
that." His comment on the nudity - "so what, you don't really see
anything."
Kat Kan
teen-@hotmail.com
| | From: Mary-Lou Gelissen <mgeli-@city.windsor.on.ca>
Reply-To: gni-@topica.com
To: "'gni-@topica.com'" <gni-@topica.com>
Subject: RE: {GNIE-L} Portland Press article and editorial about gns in
school
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 20:19:17 -0500
A very interesting article Katherine, I find it kind of unnerving that no
non-nude titles are mentioned. I personally do not buy titles such as Love
Hina, due to the racy content that offends the teen girls. If they want to
read more Shojo then I pick up Swan or Fruits Basket. However even though I
am not the biggest fan of the Manga genre, I feel the body types are far
more realistic then anything from an X-men comic (which I read). As for
stuff like Inu-yasha and Ranman 1/2 the brief nudity is non-relevant to
most
of the kids that I have spoken to in my Comic Club and to them it isn't
anything more then what they haven't seen in a Britney Spears video.
The article was very insightful pointing out the cultural differences that
(even we Canadians) find with America's more Puritanical culture. I don't
dispute the problems with 'hentaiesque' novels and my budget is so small I
do not purchase them. However, I encourage the outrage of that young woman
and those grade six girls. If they feel objectified they should voice their
opinions and feel comfortable doing so. My question to them would be do you
get this angry watching a video or reading Seventeen magazine? What is
healthy is the discussion taking place. However does this warrant
Censorship. Do you understand what Censoring materials means? I know in my
teen groups many of the females prefer Manga because of the physical
depictions of characters (as being more androgynous) and more realistic and
not as exaggerated.
I do believe it takes a lot more concentration to understand a story that
is
drawn and limits language. It encourages creative thought and analysis just
as examining a painting in a museum would. Also a number of my "reluctant
readers" are now reading other materials, aside from Manga. They like books
on art, history, martial arts, travel as well as other non-fiction
interests
and good for them! The members of my Comic Club are the biggest readers I
know.
Any response from the educators out there?
Mary-Lou Gelissen
Teen Services Librarian
Windsor Public library
Windsor, Ontario
-----Original Message-----
From: Katharine Kan [mailto:teen-@hotmail.com]
Sent: March 17, 2005 6:27 PM
To: gni-@topica.com
Subject: {GNIE-L} Portland Press article and editorial about gns in school
Here's the original article:
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/050314comics.shtml
And the follow-up editorial (which is great):
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/viewpoints/editorials/050315novel.shtml
Kat Kan
teen-@hotmail.com
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