Banned books and Girl Detached
Book banning has existed as long as books themselves. What one person reads as vivid, refreshing or challenging, another may read as violent, perverse or politically dubious. Many classics of world literature have been banned at certain points in their history; some still are banned in certain places. In Manuela Salvi’s native Italy, censors believed
Girl Detached to be such a “dangerous” book that they had it banned. Perhaps the issue was that Girl Detached is truthful about bodies and sex. Perhaps the censors thought that young people lack the capacity to consider serious issues affecting themselves or other young people. Or perhaps the censors were uncomfortable with how Girl Detached lays bare society’s attitudes to these issues – where those who are wealthy, privileged and, nearly always, male can silence those who are not. We do not believe that anyone should have the right to publish anything they like. There is a need to protect individuals from harm, for example by legislating against the sharing of exploitative images of real people. But we