this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
363 points (98.7% liked)

United States | News & Politics

7209 readers
593 users here now

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Were they specifically shown just that part? Or was it part of reading the entire thing? I could see how the first scenario would be a bit odd and would like more context but if it's just in the book they were reading then this article is kind of misleading.

Also agree with you that this is totally normal thing for 8th graders to think about... the book was written by someone their own age for fucks sake.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From an interview with David Polonsky, the illustrator:

In illustrating those more sensitive pages, Polonsky says he took great care to make sure nothing was too explicit for young readers.

Frank's musings about vaginas are illustrated with a black and white swirl, inspired by painter Georgia O'Keefe's famously vaginal flowers, he said. When Frank ponders female nudes, Polonsky draws her walking through a garden surrounded by Greek sculptures.

"I took inspiration from Anne's own world. She was really into Greek art and sculptures," he said. "I decided to show the nudes through classical marble sculptures, which I believed six years ago would be a mainstream thing that wouldn't be too controversial."

The illustrations from the book.

Georgia O'Keefe's famously vaginal flowers

This book was out for six years before it became a "problem". Real "someone think of the poor children" bullshit moral panic that is thinly disguising its fascism.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That would have been my assumption but I always like to get as much detail about situations like this as possible in case something is being misrepresented to push a particular agenda. Looking at your links I have to agree with you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Without the illustrations to show that it's age appropriate it's easy for people to assume the worst.