Local Mother Attempts to Ban Manga at Public Library

How can you deny the health care of young men!

I was trying to think of a good video to post up today, and as I was browsing through ANN as always I happened to come across a new article labeled "Florida Mother Protests Manga in Local Library."  My first inclination was that she was another stupid parent who is lacking the parenting skills to keep track of what her child is reading.  I was right.  Below is the article via Anime News Network

A mother in Crestview, Florida protested the availability of mature manga at her city's public library and claimed her teenage son was negatively affected after picking up a volume from the general circulation shelves. The parent, Margaret Barbaree, said that the manga had adult themes which she described as "graphic" and "shocking." Barbaree is the founder of a citizens group called Protect Our Children, and she presented her case to the Crestview City Council on June 28.

Barbaree told the council, “My son lost his mind when he found this. Now he's in a home for extensive therapy.”

The manga shown to the council to support Barbaree's case were Psychic Academy and "003: The Naked Suicide Girl" according to the Crestview City Coucil public documents. "003: The Naked Suicide Girl" is a chapter in the Gantz manga series. This particular chapter can be found in the first volume from Dark Horse Comics, and the volume is rated for readers 18 or older. Psychic Academy, on the other hand, is rated by TOKYOPOP for readers 13 or older.

The manga Barbaree's son found was in the Crestview Public Library's general stacks. According to the Crestview News Bulletin, Barbaree said her son took the manga from the unsupervised stacks and put it in his backpack. Library Director Jean Lewis said that area was on a top shelf with other graphic novels and comic books not intended for young readers. Council President Charles Baugh Jr. visited the library the day after Barbaree's complaints and said the manga in the separate young adults section were appropriate.

Barbaree has protested the availability of manga before. She collected 226 signatures against the public access of "anime," although the petition was directed at manga. Crestview Public Library did not heed the petition, and a staffer said that some patrons thought Barbaree misrepresented the protest.

"They told us [that Barbaree] approached them at the Christmas parade and asked them to sign a petition protesting pornography in the library," Resource Librarian Sandra Dreaden told the Crestview News Bulletin.

The staff added that manga has been included in the library because there has been a demand for it. The library's website lists a Teen Anime Club, in which patrons aged 12 to 17 meet for one hour on Tuesdays for anime and manga.

ANN contacted Library Director Lewis, but Lewis declined to comment.

Ahem! if you did not read the article and just skipped to this part of the post, then go back now and finish reading.  First of all I want to say good job!  The public library did not acknowledge this womans fail attempt at banning manga.  It is parents like this that keep manga and anime from becoming mainstream.  To an adult, or any ignorant "American," manga and anime is just a cartoon, so it has to be safe.  Disney has successfully diluted animation in the United States.  Great job guys! you completely screwed up a whole generation!

I cannot help but point out something.  What does the mother mean by "now he is in a home for extensive therapy?"  What kind of kid needs extensive therapy after reading manga!  I am going to assume that the mother is talking for her son.  I cannot imagine being psychologically screwed over just from reading 2 manga books, and if he was THAT sensitive what in the world is he doing by himself in a library.  I mean there are so many books in there with all kinds of ideas!  They even have books saying we came from apes!!!! Can you believe that!  Of course I am using sarcasm here.  I can imagine the kid sitting, locked up in his room screaming "I wanna see bewbs!" While the mother is yelling "Its ok hunny! no one can hurt you, there is no such thing as breasts!"

The mother is also a blinded idiot.  Instead of petitioning manga, she is trying to ban "Anime" from the library.  Get it right!  Did you just do a google search on manga and grab the first website for your whole little research project?  Maybe if she would keep her nose out of her "Protect Our Children" organization and did a bit more looking into the real world she would not have been as shocked and appalled to find that "cartoons" can be made for mature audiences.