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Maus by Art Spiegelman is one of the most esteemed comics to date, even winning a Pulitzer Prize. The story follows the true account of Spiegelman’s father during the Holocaust, and it’s not surprising that teachers would use this book in classes to give students a more personal connection to history, which can also be more accessible or engaging than the traditional textbook for some readers. However, others see Maus in a different light, with the McMinn County School Board banning the book from curriculums. Unfortunately, this is not a first for comics, which have been the subject of censorship for decades.
Maus was banned due to certain language, depictions of violence and some nudity, thus prompting the removal of the book from the curriculum and one board member saying, “Why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff, it is not wise or healthy.” The notion that a comic book by a Jewish man about the Jewish experience during the Holocaust would somehow promote any of the atrocities his father went through is ludicrous to say the least, especially after one reads Maus. However, the fear that comics can somehow corrupt or negatively influence children goes back well before the publication of Maus.
In fact, during the early years of comics — around the 1930s — it was some educators who feared comics would be a bad influence on students, and later on, these fears would grow, as churches and civic groups also complained about the medium. The issues seen with comics included containing “immoral” content and promoting anti-authority sentiment and poor taste.
As the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund explains, despite these attacks on comics, it was Seduction of the Innocence by Dr. Fredric Wertham that struck one the largest blows against the industry, as he claimed children would imitate problematic behavior depicted in comics, and kids would also be desensitized. The infamous novel lead to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency investigating the effects of comic books on youths in 1954, and from there, censorship became a larger problem for the industry.
Comics had to adhere to a form of self-censorship with the Comics Code Authority, out of fear of government censorship. To receive the literal stamp of approval, there were numerous provisions, including no sex, no drugs, no nudity and no cursing. The list goes on, and if comics failed to receive approval, they could not be sold in stores, according to BookRiot. Thankfully, as a form of self censorship, the CCA fizzled out, with the rules loosing in the ’70s and publishers finding ways to work around these restrictions or avoiding the seal altogether until the CCA officially ended in 2011.
Despite this, the fears associated with the medium still seem present to this day, with comics, like Maus, being banned because of the assumption these books could influence children in a negative way, even when the content in said books is not negative in the first place. This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, for instance, has been challenged for its inclusion in schools and libraries because it depicts, “LGBTQ+ characters, drug use and profanity, and it was considered sexually explicit with mature themes.”
As a coming of age graphic novel, it’s not surprising This One Summer would tackle mature themes, and the fact including queer characters would prompt people to challenge the book is heartbreaking, but it’s far from the only book to be subject to this, with Drama by Raina Telgemeier also facing critique about including a kiss between two boys. Chapel Hill Elementary School even banned the book because it was too sexually explicit, despite it being for all ages and the kiss being “chaste.”
Depictions of queerness or sexuality are even challenged at a higher education level. For instance, Funhome by Alison Bechdel, a memoir about Bechdel’s relationship with her father and the discovery he’s gay, has been challenged for its inclusion in three college curriculum’s, specifically because it was seen by these critics as “pornographic.” Like Maus, the acclaim Funhome received still was not enough to stop the book’s opposers.
Meanwhile, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, another graphic memoir, was banned for some of the same reasons as Maus. The book was pulled from some Chicago classes in 2013, prompting students and teachers to protest this censorship. Supposedly, it was pulled for the violent images, which are limited and not too graphic due to the style of the art, with the latter point also resonating with how Spiegelman depicts the horrors of the Holocaust. Furthermore, Persepolis would be challenged several other times over the years, with overt Islamophobia playing a major role in some accounts.
While the CCA has been out of effect for years, and it was on the way out well before Maus, it’s clear there is still a fear of certain comics to this day. It’s even more jarring to see how these dated concerns play such a major role in censoring, silencing or outright banning comics that cover crucial history and underrepresented voices, but thankfully, as seen with how others have responded to the banning of Maus, it’ll take a lot more to keep these books out of the hands of the public.
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