Explicit sexual content, defined by the province as detailed and clear depictions of sexual acts, including masturbation, penetration and ejaculation, will not be accessible to students in any grade.
also
Religious texts, such as the Bible, will be allowed on the shelves.
I’m shocked… really, like, i 100% knew that was going to be in there article. So actually, I’m not shocked. Fuck you Alberta.
I can see where the censors are coming from, and how they might see these as pornographic, but I think they’ve responded to the surface appearance rather than what’s actually going on in the book.
These excerpts are fairly explicit and describe sex acts and being turned on. In that, they resemble porn. But they also tend to be describing teenage sexual discovery in a realistic way, showing how the development of sexual feelings can be tender and complex. If you remove teenagers’ access to these books, what are they left with to help them understand what they’re experiencing? Internet porn and the manosphere? It can be helpful for kids to have access to more nuanced and sensitive materials, even if they are somewhat explicit.
So I can see how the censors see this, but I still wouldn’t ban these books just because they contain sexually explicit scenes, and I still think it’s a mistake to classify these as porn.