What Does A Scrotum Have To Do With Quality Literature?

JFK once said that “a child miseducated is a child lost”. This came to mind the other day whilst listening to the idiotic banter about Susan Patron’s great work of art, “The Higher Power of Lucky” and her use of the word “scrotum” therein.

Patron’s book was awarded the 2007 Newbery Award, otherwise known as the crowning achievement in children’s literature. Her book’s target audience is grades four to six. Children aged nine to 12 should be well aware of the accurate names of their body parts. If your ten year old child does not know what a scrotum is and doesn’t feel comfortable coming to you for the answer, you might have bigger problems than whether or not to let your child read this book.

In the 144 pages which comprise the entire work, the word scrotum is used twice when a snake bites Lucky (the dog) on the scrotum. An accurate description of an event within the book which also serves to develop Lucky’s character. From the book: "Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much. It sounded medical and secret, but also important."

Because of this people are “outraged” and demanding this work of art be banned from our children’s libraries. Everyone is talking about it. Good for the author's sales, but a significant reminder of how far we have yet to go as a culture to bridge the gap between morals and real life. The use of scrotum or penis or vagina is NOT a moral issue. Global warming is a moral issue for if we don't do something about it, we have turned against ourselves and our children and their children. If we use the anatomically correct word for a body part, we are telling the truth and we all know what the truth does...

Yes, it sets us free. Which is also the job, incidentally, of literature and all art. To expose the truth and make us reflect on our lives and how we are choosing to live them. Are we living a moral life? Are we living up to our values? Unfortunately, this task cannot be accomplished when the artist is not allowed to go where the creative process wants to go – the truth cannot reveal itself to the reader under the pretense of morally censored guidelines.

From the New York Times to the CBC, the question everyone wants answered is whether or not genitalia belong in quality literature? Excuse me while I empty my library and toss my degree in Literature out the window! Of course only someone who has not studied “quality literature” could ask such a question. From the classics onward, literature has always included body parts, sex and bodily functions. What some call too crude for literature is an integral part of what makes the human experience human.

But is it appropriate for a child you wonder? Well, it certainly can’t do our children any harm to know what their bodies are made of. Sugar and spice may have been nice, but that’s not what little girls are made of and we all know it. Knowledge empowers people. Children are people too. For a child to know his or her body is for that child to be empowered. To call something by its proper name is to not be ashamed by it. With this debate we have reawakened the censorship debate, but worse yet we have once again sent a message to our children that their bodies might be something to be afraid of.

What do we do with things we are afraid of? We hide them, we sneak them around and we usually find ourselves in trouble when our actions are derived from fear. What if the opposite were also true? If we celebrated our bodies, called things by that which they are and allowed ourselves to love and appreciate the bodies we have, isn’t it possible that we could see a generation of kids unwilling to hurt themselves so much with sex, drugs and alcohol?

We wonder why children can be so self-damaging in their behaviours and yet we cannot call a scrotum by its name. There simply is no reason for it. If it’s a moral issue you want, then take on this one – let us give our children the right to talk about their bodies, to read great literature, to live in an uncensored world where the right to express themselves freely is honoured, respected and encouraged so that they may feel strong in the face of fear, hopeful in the face of doom and love in the face of hate.

A child miseducated is one who is not allowed to think for herself and therefore does not learn how to think. A child that is lost is a child who does not know who she is. Only by giving a child every opportunity will he or she be able to develop a moral compass of their own. Then will our children have something worthwhile in which to believe.