Judy Blume
Date: 1938 - Present
Region: North America
Subject: Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Literature
Artist: Judy Blume
Confronting Bodies: Literary critics, schools and libraries across the United States
Dates of Action: 1970-present
Location: United States
Description of Artwork: Judy Blume is a reknown adolescent book writer. Her first controversial novel, Are you there, God? It's Me, Margaret (1970), is a reflection by a 12-year-old girl on subjects like large breasts and menstruation. Her novel Deenie (1973) includes female masturbation, Blubber (1974)has a bullying heroine and Forever (1975) includes adolescent sexual intercourse.
The Incident: Are You There... was banned by Blume's children's elementary school principal. Around the country, critics called her work, "anti-Christian and against parental and school authority." In 1983, schools in Leesburg, Florida and Peoria, Illinois, removed her books from their school libraries.
Results of Incident: The ACLU has challenged much of the censorship against Blume's books. Many of her titles are still on the American Library Association's banned books list.
Source: Censorship, A World Encyclopedia, ed. D. Jones
