Banning the Arts

or "Burn the Witch!"

A mate asked me why I bother writing these articles asserting that I was wasting my time. Well maybe that’s true I said, but you’ve got to fight back against these bastards or what sort of society will we have? So here we go, again ....

Most will know about book banning in areas of the US where Christian fundamentalists hold sway and in Islamist regimes in places like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan but many forget the other arts that these theocrats also want to control. Let’s be under no illusion here, this is fascism pure and simple and plain as day. Remember these are the people who spread Trump’s campaign lies when he said that “public schools in democrat controlled cities were operating on children so a a boy who went to school in the morning would return a girl in the afternoon”. I mean FFS! What sort of idiot believes such shit Well millions did apparently

A couple of years ago I wrote these lyrics; they’re one verse in a song named “Fascism” and seem apposite (and if you know Leonard Cohen’s song “Democracy”, well that’s the tune).

These self appointed judges of morality, of what and what is not suitable for children’s and adult’s eyes, have a very specific aim. It is to deconstruct every educational institution, museum, stage production, film studio and music company and replace them with establishments that brainwash pupils and citzens into a pattern of behaviour of which they approve. This means people are stifled, their imagination and creativity shrivels away to nothing and a generation of compliant automatons is produced.

In many countries, girls are excluded from education entirely and in some thorcratic states or districts that do allow girls to be ‘educated’, if we are going to pervert that word, such programmes teach women their place as ‘homemakers’, wives and mothers, to be subservient first to their fathers and then to their husbands. No health or sex education taught other than abstinence is taught and all forms of contraception is banned because apparently ‘condoms will turn a pupil’s mind to lustful thoughts’. Well if I remember my teen years and college days correctly, almost anything would turn my mind to thoughts of lust.

So I thought readers may like to glance at the list of artistic works that have undergone, or are under threat of, removal by these self appointed guardians of morality, these people who demand that only parents should hold sway over their children’s education and then immediately take such control away from said parents.

Banned Books

1. LGBTQIA Memoirs

1.1 “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe. A graphic novel that explores non-binary identity. The pictures in the book seem to upset the neanderthals the most.

1.2 “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson. a bio that tells a story of the intersectionality of being black and queer. The Visigoths label it sexually explicit. I’m unsure what they mean by that but I think they mean that the book reflects real life and that’s always a problem for the fundamentalist mob.

1.3 “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson. A guide to dealing with everyday life situations written for young LGBTQIA+ people. Banned because, well we mustn’t help deviants navigate their way through life eh ....

1.4 “Melissa” by Alex Gino. A novel for children about a transgender girl. The Philistines are incapable of grasping the fact that one’s gender is not necessarily the same as one’s sex at birth.

1.5 “Flamer” by Mike Curato. A graphic novel that is semi-autobiographical. It tells the story of a gay teenager being bullied at Scout camp. The barbarians really are intent on preventing our LGBTQIA+ sons and daughters, our nieces and nephews from getting any love and support, let alone life guidance.

2. Race

2.1 “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison. the psychological impacts of racism which led to low self esteem, marriage breakdown and eventual insanity. I’ve read this and it just blew my mind it’s so powerful. The fundamentalist oafs don’t like it because (they say) the book contains a depiction of incestuous child sexual abuse. Some might say maybe it hits a little close to home for their liking. I couldn’t possibly comment.

2.2 “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. Yes, that classic. No further comment on why those who cannot accept reality want this one gone, it’s obvious (unless you haven’t ready the book in which case do so, immediately).

2.3 “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker. An award winning novel that lays bare the dreadful abuse of black women over time. It contains scenes of violence, rape and it questions the perversion of Christianity by the religious right who unsurprisingly don’t like either reality or being questioned by some “uppity” black woman. They use another word for “black woman” of course, a word I will not repeat.

2.4 “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas. A bang up-to-date novel about police brutality doled out to people of colour and how it led to the Black Lives Matter movement. The zealots don’t like it because it criticises racist police officers explains how and why they are almost never punished. Oh and it has some drug taking in it too.

2.5 “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie. A story about an indigenous moving from teenager to adulthood. It contains a lot of swearing and references to sex, hence ....

3. Dystopian Fiction and Social Satire

3.1 “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood. Enough said I think - this one really got to them. I guess they really hate what they actually want being exposed.

3.2 “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. A classic and guess what, its subject is book burning and mind control - another subject that the Christian right hate because it exposes what they are really about.

3.3 “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut. Any novel that satirises war and religion and contains sex, violence and swearing will attract the ire of our moral guardians.

4. Contemporary Fiction and Young Adult Literature

4.1 The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. Not much more needs to be said about this except to say that the fatwa issued by the Ayatollah remains in place - forever.

There are many other books (that I’ll make sure I read) in this category of which the neanderthals disapproved including:

• “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini

• “Looking for Alaska” by John Green

• “The Perks of Being a Wallflower “by Stephen Chbosky

• “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher

All are banned for the same content as the aforementioned titles; the censorship triggers are obvious to all: Essentially any book that covers sexual difference, teen sexuality, the realities of racism, police racist violence, mind control, anti-war or anti-military themes, or the secular will be banned automatically by the religious loons.

To close this section I give you the book that really started the madness (at least in my lifetime) - “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger. My bet is that if you’re reading this, you will have read Salinger’s masterpiece which became the most frequently banned book in high schools in the US. The Christian right targeted it for the usual reasons stating that it celebrated “immoral and anti-social behaviour youth behaviour”. The idiots have either not read it or they haven’t understood it.

Books about LGBTQIA+, race and feminist issues have replaced Holden as the zealots’ bête noire and If you can write and publish a book that deals with the intersection of two or even all three of these societal issues then you’ll really attract the ire of these lunatics but 000s of liberals and progressives will regard you with awe and admiration. “Banned by the Religious Police” should be a badge of honour (and an excellent marketing ploy too).

Plays

Regular readers will know of my passion for theatre and in particular Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. That the playwrights of Shakespeare’s day understood human nature incredibly well meant they produced plays that were so sharp, they could slice your mind in two. What’s more, human nature has not changed even the tiniest iota in close to 500 years; we remain the same as we ever were.

1. Shakespeare

So let’s start with Bill who is for me the greatest playwright of all time. The Christian Right will say, correctly, it has not banned any of Shakespeare’s plays. This is true. What it has done is far worse. It has decreed that some of his plays are not to be staged in schools and that only selected passages may be taught and studied. This is an act of such literary vandalism, I can barely contain my anger. To take a single passage out of the context of its scene and its play as a whole is to substantially remove any meaning from it. The Christian Right may just as well have armed themselves with sharp knives, stormed the Folger library and destroyed every copy of the 82 First Folios of 1623, the 200 quartos that library houses and preserves for the world and then set fire to the fucking building for good measure.

These are examples that these Visigoths have declared to be unfit to teach, study and enjoy in their entirety:

• Romeo and Juliet (burning undying love, and we can’t have that)

• Macbeth (Occult, ghosts, personal ambition and violent pyschopathy)

• Hamlet (I really can’t explain this - maybe the occult references or the “hero as a fool” theme)

• Twelfth Night (gender role playing)

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (occult)

• Othello (Personal ambition and a black figure of authority)

• King Lear (violence)

• Titus Andronicus (violence, orgies and cannibalism)

2. Other Jacobean and Elizabethan Plays

Many classical play texts have been caught up in the rabid banning lunacy in districts of the US. These include the following works of genius - all banned because of their content and the characters’ sacrilegious behaviour, plus their irreverent humour, double entendres and dirty jokes:

• The Duchess of Malfi

• The Changeling

• The White Devil

• The Revenger’s Tragedy

• ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore

• The Devil is an Ass

• The Alchemist

All deal with greed, ambition, lust, incest, graphic murder, religious hypocrisy, and adultery - triggers that guarantee a work will be banned by the Religious police even if all show the unchanging nature of human beings, both good and bad.

Paintings and Sculptures

Some of the greatest artworks that human-kind has ever produced have been targeted for prohibition by the Christian right and if ever there was an illustration of their closed mindedness and of their barbaric philistinism, this list is it. Take a look

Michelangelo’s David: In 2023, the Christian conservative school board governing a Tallahassee School in Florida and that rabidly demanded parental control to stop what they called “woke indoctrination” forced the resignation of the school’s principal because they had allowed a photograph of the statue of David to be used in an art course and one (yes one!) parent complained this constituted pornography. This stunning display of ignorance just makes your head explode. I did not study art or the history of art but I’ve been to Florence and I’ve seen the statue up close - I was stunned by its beauty, I spent a full 15 minutes looking at it it in bewildered awe, every tiny detail of bone structure, of musculature, of eyes and hair was simply breathtaking - the thing seemed to actually be glowing with life. It is about a far removed from porn as it’s possible to be.

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli and the Creation of Adam by Michelangelo: In the same case, these unbelievably beautiful paintings were banned by the same school board because they depicted nudity.

In case you think I have some beef with the Christian Right in the US, well yes I do, but this is because of the sheer volume of outrageous cases in that uncivilised place but it happens elsewhere too.

In South Africa, the conservative Christian political party, the African Christian Democratic Party, banned a student’s artwork that satirised the Bible.

In Afghanistan, the Buddhas of Bamiyan, carved in the 5th century AD , were banned by the Taliban. These creatures physically destroyed two sculptures using dynamite because they were “un-Islamic idols”.

The Islamic State, aka ISIS or ISIL, systematically destroyed Assyrian and Akkadian statues, video’d their vandalism and posted it to the web. ISIS said it was “fulfilling a religious mandate to destroy polytheistic relics”.

Before we get too smug, the UK is guilty too.

This year, local government guidance advised teachers and schools in the North of England that figurative student could drawings of prophets could be in direct conflict with sharia rulings on idolatry. This is similar to the cartoons case in Scandinavia some years ago. It is an outrage that local government should cave to any religion and this sort of spineless behaviour is pure gravy to the UK’s hard right Tory, Reform and Restore parties.

Films

Hollywood studio output was until relatively recently governed by ridiculous codes of conduct. If you want something to make you smile, just read up on the Hays Code. There are so many films that religious zealots have banned or tried to ban, it’s hard to know where to start but here’s a selection, oh and by the by, God, if she, he or it exists, does have a sense of humour - just look at the Platypus ... (thanks to Kevin Smith for that gem.

Monty Python’s Life of Brian: Was banned in the UK by nearly 40 local councils who caved in to protests from various Christian groups that accused the film of blasphemy - palpably risible charge. The film’s release was well known for producing the “debate” on the BBC’s Friday Night, Saturday Morning programme in which Michael Palin and John Cleese faced the very aggressive Bishop of Southwark Mervyn Stockwood who was backed up by a sort of mini-me in Malcolm Muggeridge. Palin and Cleese wiped the floor with them.

The Last Temptation of Christ: Picketed by fundamentalist Christian groups in the US and Europe alike, one particular group of fanatics actually firebombed the Saint Michel cinema in Paris; 13 people were badly injured

The Da Vinci Code: Protests, bans and withdrawals of the film by some cinemas happened globally because of a ridiculous campaign by the Vatican. And the film was just a fantasy FFS!

Dogma: While not banned, the film, another fantasy and a very funny one ,attracted massive protests from catholics organised by the the Catholic church. These zealots have no sense of humour whatsoever.

Like a Prayer: The video of Madonna’s epic hit attracted protests by the religious right. They were not successful in banning it but their protests made Pepsi pull their TV advert that used the song as its soundtrack. The zealots objected to much of the video including burning crosses (too close to their KKK I guess), stigmata and - shock horror - Madonna kissing a black Jesus in a church.

Baby Doll: was pronounced immoral by the Catholic Legion of Decency in the 1950s which led large cinema chains to withdraw the film.

Various LGBTQIA+ and fantasies have been banned in schools in the US. Far-right Christians and fundamentalists have again lobbied school boards and libraries to pull films including Lightyear, Frozen, and Nimona because of LGBTQIA+ themes (the zealots really are obsessed with sexual difference aren’t they - one wonders why ....) or ‘occult’ content (remember how these same people wanted to ban MacBeth?)

The Lady of Heaven: Major UK cinemas cancelled all screenings after protests by Islamists who said the film was “sectarian and blasphemous”.

Submission: This short exposed the appalling treatment of women and girls living (existing might be a better word) under fundamentalist Islamic regimes. An Islamist murdered the film’s director Theo van Gogh.

Music

The Blues that Americans of colour who descended from enslaved people developed was regarded as amoral by white people in the south but because it was the domain of people of colour, it was largely ignored by the religious zealots. When the Blues evolved into Rock ‘n’ Roll and white boys and girls began listening to it, dancing to it and loving it, the fundamentalists and other conservatives sat up and took notice and did their level best to get it banned from the radio. White musicians who played it were called ‘n****r* lovers and were roundly abused by conservatives whites.

Other genres targeted since include heavy metal, rap and hip-hop and electronic dance music. Music in these categories has faced sweeping bans by fundamentalists in Christian academies apparently because of ‘satanic influences or ungodly themes’.

Specific targets of the lunatics’ ire have included:

• The K-Pop Demon Hunters Soundtrack

• Led Zeppelin

• AC/DC

• Ozzy Osbourne

• Most ‘Girl groups’ such as Girls Allowed

In some cases copies of albums on vinyl and cassette were physically burned by churches, and families.

Islamic Fundamentalist states have banned too many artists, songs and even musical instruments to list here - again records, videos and instruments have been destroyed by this luddites.

Ultra orthodox Jewish communities have restricted secular radio and pop music channels preventing children in particular from listening to such dangerous material.

For me, the banning of music is probably the most pernicious of restrictions for the simple reason that music brings joy and pleasure to billions and it should never be judged as amoral by any one. This applies to all music (except Country and Western - I’d ban that like a shot .... kidding). The zealots should remember that in their bible, God is apparently happiest when his, her or its children are at play, are singing or are dancing.

Summary

Parents must stand up and be counted - even those who don’t approve of a book, a painting, a play, film or song - because their right to see their children educated is being taken from them by small groups of fundamentalists with influence thanks to the funds they receive from wealthy hard-right groups like Turning Point and the heritage Foundation. God forbid that we produce a generation capable of free choice, rational thought and the ability to debate - what a dreadful idea that is - far better to produce a generation of fully compliant automatons.

Now to the really serious point. Just what have these protests and bans by the ultimate patriarchy achieved? Ok I’ll tell you. A society in which it is ok:

• to beat up and even kill LGBTQIA+ people

• to stalk

• to mentally and physically abuse women perceived to be non non-compliant with or disobedient of, male instructions.

• for teenaged high school boys and college aged males in what they imagine to be “alpha male behaviour” to sexually assault women and girls and get away with a slap on the risk because you know, boys will be boys

• to rape within marriage

• to remove women’s reproductive rights and replaced them by men having direct control over women’s health choices and decisions

• for the police to stop and shoot people driving, walking or simply living “while black”.

How do I know this? Because the Christian hard-right fascists literally told us all about it in their magnum opus Project2025 that’s how. Their lunazi was writ large and video’d for all to read and see and tens of millions of American men and (fewer) women voted for it in 2023/24.

If you don’t like something, fine, that’s your choice; don’t watch watch it or listen to it, But FFS, don’t impose your religious, conservative and closed-minded values on the rest of us.