Of Maus and Men
last updated: 28 January 2022 (approximate reading time: 2 minutes; 402 words)
If you haven’t already seen the news, a school district in Tennessee has banned Maus. I’ve read the graphic novel, I’ve taught the graphic novel in English class in high school, there are holocaust survivors and victims in my family. So here goes.
Their true intention
The TN school district says that they banned this graphic novel because of less than a handful of swear words and a panel with some nudity. Some have been saying this is evidence its not censorship/anti-Semitism, this school district is just enforcing their language and nudity rules. I do not doubt that these up-tight, prudish white adults were sent into a tizzy by a few gruff words and a topless mouse. However, if that’s truly all it was than they would have replaced Maus with some other holocaust curriculum. By saying “See the cartoon boobs on that mouse? We don’t need to study the holocaust no more,” they have revealed their true hand.
Any time the suffering of a group of people is removed so that the supremicists don’t need to face the wrongs of the past is horrible, and dare I say it, a sin. But there’s some consolation here.
But will it work?
As any of us who have taught in a classroom know, anything assigned is boring, but anything they’re told is bad for them is exciting. Maus, released in 1980—ancient history to someone born in the mid-2000s or later—would probably have just been another assignment that the less studious would have not done and copied off their friends who did it. But now that they’re told that it’s too dirty and forbidden…now it’s exciting! (and it’s got b00bs, right?)
Maus has now rocketed up to the top ten historical and literary graphic novel charts in Amazon. It’s back on people’s minds. Some will buy it and never read it. Others will just look for the swear words and mouse tits. But someone, likely someone in TN, who would never have given this a second’s thought, is going to read the book. And when they’re done snickering and sniggering, maybe they’ll learn something. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll care just a tiny bit more than they did before—which is exactly what this school board is trying to stop.
The fascists and the haters have tried to silence us before. And they will try again. But in the end, they will always, always, fail.
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