September 26, 2022, 9:42am
Why the hell has Pennsylvania’s Central York School District banned four books in the Girls Who Code series, which provides models to young women and girls who might not otherwise see themselves as computer programmers?
Yes, the nationwide Republican movement to ban books is repugnant and cruel and deeply hypocritical, but I can generally see how it coheres with a politics of fear and bigotry. So… coding? What’s wrong with that? The only thing I can think of is that Christofascist ideologies contain within them the patriarchal need to keep women at home and dependent on men? Cool.
According to this report at The Register:
Girls Who Code’s founder, Reshma Saujani, has pinned the ban on a group called “Moms for Liberty,” which advocates for parental rights in schools and oversight of educational material. Saujani detailed her reaction to finding the books on the PEN America list: “To be honest, I am so angry I cannot breathe. This series was our labor of love, our commitment to our community to make sure that girls—all girls—see themselves as coders. You cannot be what you cannot see, and this was our effort to get more girls, girls of color interested in coding. And it worked!!”
The Register goes on to speculate that the ban has more to do with the political positions espoused by the Girls Who Code organization, which supports reproductive freedom and trans rights.
So it’s not really about the books. Ugh.
(If you’re angry about this, there are lots of places to donate money, like here.)