Laurie Halse Anderson's "Speak" and Pornography

A long time ago I decided not to get into arguments over the internet. If I feel strongly about something I'll say my piece and move on. I'm pretty good about following that rule, but sometimes I just can't let something go. Last night was one of those times.

A right-wing sensationalistic "newspaper" found out that some middle schoolers in Florida were assigned the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Some parents got upset when the realized that the book is about a girl that was raped between her eighth and ninth grade school years--she was 13 when the rape occurred. The book follows her through her ninth-grade year. It's a painful book to read; the girl is so young and the violation so major. But it's a well-written book. It's written in the vernacular of high-school students and talks about the cliques and hypocrisy that can exist in high school. It's clearly not the only book on rape and it's not at all a handbook on what to do after you are raped. It's a book that follows this one girl after she was raped.

The "newspaper" found great glee in calling Speak "child pornography (they used the words probably ten times in a short article.)." It pulled out quotes from the book that use the word "abortion" or "pissed." A group of homeschoolers got up in arms about this book of child pornography based on this article. It was soundly condemned and people that would consider letting their children read it were considered to be lax parents at best.

The thing is, none of these parents had ever read it. They probably hadn't even heard of it until the article was brought to their attention. When I spoke up and said that I had read it and there was absolutely no graphic retelling of the story and even if there had been, it was a description of a rape, their response was that talking about rape or sex in any way, shape, or form is pornography. 

This is wrong. I'm not saying that everyone should run out, buy the book, and hand it to their five-year-old. I'm saying that in the proper context and with guidance an 8th grader should be able to read this book.

Here's another thing about Speak. My copy of the book has an interview with the author at the end. She was asked if she had any surprising reactions to the book. She said that her most surprising reaction was from boys. They were surprised that rape actually hurt the girl so much. 

Let me repeat that. Boys were surprised that raping a girl actually hurt the girl. 

That is why we need this book. So that boys can see, in a safe place, that rape hurts girls. How in the world are we failing to teach boys that rape hurts? How in the world are we failing them that badly and how in the world are we failing our girls as well? 

For that reason alone I think that every boy and girl should read this book. It's fiction, I recognize that, but it's description of what this girl went through and will go through for years is spot-on. In Speak, Melinda literally cannot speak because of what was done to her. 

We need to speak up. Speak is not child pornography and if you use it as pornography it's a good thing to know so we can keep you away from our children. We need this book. We need to make sure our boys know that rape hurts. We need our girls to know where they can go in order to be listened to.

We need to do better.