Banned Books: Habibi, Craig Thompson
First of all, I'd like to apologize for taking so long to continue with Banned Books Month (since it's not even October anymore). Unfortunately, it took me a LONG time to get my hands on Habibi. It should proceed as regularly scheduled now.
The Book: Habibi, by Craig Thompson.
The Banhammer: "nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group." http://www.ala.org/
My Reaction: Okay, I'm actually kind of excited about this, because I really didn't like Habibi but I refuse to advocate for its banning, because a) no and b) if for some reason you WANT to read it, you should be able to. Fight me, world.
Ahem. So. Habibi follows two refugee child slaves, Dodola and Zam, as they grow up together and then fight to return to each other. There's also a lot of discussion of the Qur'an, Islamic and Arabic fairy tales, and the power of storytelling, which is my Kryptonite. The art is beautiful (I mean, really gorgeous) and there are some genuinely poignant and heartbreaking moments. So why didn't I like this?
Well, to begin with, there is a LOT of sexual and sexualized violence. Dodola is naked almost every other page, which wouldn't be as much of a problem if we ever saw a naked man in the book (we basically don't). Instead, we get Dodola nude and sexualized, constantly; she is depicted with pubic hair once, and she is always portrayed as very sexually attractive, except when she's pregnant. When she's being raped (which is often), it's still drawn to be very sexually appealing. Even more than that, a lot of the rape takes place when she is underage (often VERY underage). In the entire 700-page book, she has consensual sex once.
There is also a LOT of Orientalism. Thompson has said that he wanted this to take place in a fairy-tale land where he could show the collision of the old world and the new, but if that's so, why did he so heavily incorporate the Qur'an and Islamic folklore? He irreversibly tied his narrative to actual Islamic (largely Arabic) stereotypes. For example, at one point Dodola is kept in a sultan's harem. I was at the time reading a book about how harems actually worked (more on that excellent book later). Suffice to say that harems are not a sultan's sexual playground: they are the private quarters of the women of the royal family, some of whom are concubines, but more of whom are directly related to the sultan. Thompson's bizarre, fetishized, and sexualized portrayal of a harem as a keeping-ground for sex slaves is only the tip of the Orientalist iceberg.
THERE IS ALSO some really gross and fucked-up stuff about transgender folks that I get incoherently furious about, so be aware that it's there when reading.
Do I Buy Its Banning? Not really. They say it's unsuited for its age group, but it's clearly aimed at adults. I suspect this book was banned because people keep failing to realize that not all animation and graphic novels are for children. This one especially isn't.
Would I Recommend It? No. I think it's exploitative and gross, with a story I found hard to follow and way too much sexual violence for me to ever be comfortable with. The art is good and I liked the bits about the Qur'an and Islamic folklore, but everything else-- ew.
That said, I'd never ban it. Just let it rot on a library shelf.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/407674.html. Please comment over there if possible.
The Book: Habibi, by Craig Thompson.
The Banhammer: "nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group." http://www.ala.org/
My Reaction: Okay, I'm actually kind of excited about this, because I really didn't like Habibi but I refuse to advocate for its banning, because a) no and b) if for some reason you WANT to read it, you should be able to. Fight me, world.
Ahem. So. Habibi follows two refugee child slaves, Dodola and Zam, as they grow up together and then fight to return to each other. There's also a lot of discussion of the Qur'an, Islamic and Arabic fairy tales, and the power of storytelling, which is my Kryptonite. The art is beautiful (I mean, really gorgeous) and there are some genuinely poignant and heartbreaking moments. So why didn't I like this?
Well, to begin with, there is a LOT of sexual and sexualized violence. Dodola is naked almost every other page, which wouldn't be as much of a problem if we ever saw a naked man in the book (we basically don't). Instead, we get Dodola nude and sexualized, constantly; she is depicted with pubic hair once, and she is always portrayed as very sexually attractive, except when she's pregnant. When she's being raped (which is often), it's still drawn to be very sexually appealing. Even more than that, a lot of the rape takes place when she is underage (often VERY underage). In the entire 700-page book, she has consensual sex once.
There is also a LOT of Orientalism. Thompson has said that he wanted this to take place in a fairy-tale land where he could show the collision of the old world and the new, but if that's so, why did he so heavily incorporate the Qur'an and Islamic folklore? He irreversibly tied his narrative to actual Islamic (largely Arabic) stereotypes. For example, at one point Dodola is kept in a sultan's harem. I was at the time reading a book about how harems actually worked (more on that excellent book later). Suffice to say that harems are not a sultan's sexual playground: they are the private quarters of the women of the royal family, some of whom are concubines, but more of whom are directly related to the sultan. Thompson's bizarre, fetishized, and sexualized portrayal of a harem as a keeping-ground for sex slaves is only the tip of the Orientalist iceberg.
THERE IS ALSO some really gross and fucked-up stuff about transgender folks that I get incoherently furious about, so be aware that it's there when reading.
Do I Buy Its Banning? Not really. They say it's unsuited for its age group, but it's clearly aimed at adults. I suspect this book was banned because people keep failing to realize that not all animation and graphic novels are for children. This one especially isn't.
Would I Recommend It? No. I think it's exploitative and gross, with a story I found hard to follow and way too much sexual violence for me to ever be comfortable with. The art is good and I liked the bits about the Qur'an and Islamic folklore, but everything else-- ew.
That said, I'd never ban it. Just let it rot on a library shelf.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/407674.html. Please comment over there if possible.