National Library of Scotland censors The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht

I'm triggered by any mention of 'safe space' or 'allies', particularly when they're beardy men with the need to mansplain feminism to me.

I’ve heard lots of good things about David McMenemy. Stuff about librarians as gate openers not gatekeepers to information
People I know who attended the training he led at the NLS said it was very good (with much comment that it was the shame that the people who really needed to be there weren’t)

Folk on this thread might be interested to know that all NLS directors &managers recently attended a mandatory training session on the Equality Act. It was delivered by an employment specialist from the Library’s law firm. The primary aim being to ensure the NLS stays on the right side of the law.

I believe many are still ideologically captured but at least they now have some idea of the perils of falling foul of the law.

I don’t know where he stands but when he was brought in at the height of the debacle to deliver “intellectual freedom” workshops (alas they were optional rather than mandatory) I attended a session and it was actually very good. He didn’t take a stand but went through the Equality Act,
the NLS charter & the law and ethics around censorship.

@OhBuggerandArse He posted this on Twitter on 13th August:
"If you want to join a profession, find out what its fundamental principles are and decide if you can practice them. Don't pretend you can make them up to suit you. It seems such an obvious statement to make, but for the modern world, maybe not."
Which I read as a fairly unequivocal criticism of the trouble-making library staff, and a promising sign of not being captured.

looking forwards to reading the results of the study :)

Thanks for the resurrection.

Resurrecting this, briefly. I've only just seen the following study is happening:

“More than one way to burn a book?”: culture wars, censorship, and neutrality in Scottish public libraries.
This research aims to advance our understanding of the censorship challenges faced by libraries and the impact this has on their everyday roles as public gateways to open knowledge, learning, and in supporting societal well-being and enrichment. The first stage of the project sought data from public libraries on challenges to books, materials, and events received. This second phase is now surveying library staff across all sectors in Scotland to explore your experiences and perspectives concerning book, materials, and events challenges, and censorship in libraries.
The research will be published as a public report and in one or more academic journals.

If there are any Scottish librarians on the thread who haven't seen it, the link is at https://uofg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6hdlJPFJzo9kvZA - the survey is closing in mid-March.

It will be an interesting read anyway.

Violence is a feature of so many books. I wonder, were Val McDermid’s books banned, I started one and gave it up, it was pretty gory. Or books like A Thousand Splendid Suns. Is it only one sort of violence which cannot be discussed by right thinking liberals?

And while women of all stripes are at risk of male violence and abuse, it's also perhaps worth noting that very privileged women generally have fewer vulnerabilities around precarity, housing, safety nets, etc, may be less aware of or exposed to the problems, and frankly have more to lose in terms of social capital if they deviate from the accepted orthodoxy.

Actually. I think this is often the problem with what people call radfem/'gc'/'terf' arguments.

We talk about violence against women and girls, and use statistics and data to do so.

It's grim. It's upsetting. It's unpleasant and disturbing to think that all the fucking work and effort of the past has so far made little difference to the numbers of women and girls who are subject to abuse, rape, violence, and murder, at the hands of men.

It's not the pom-pom waving empowerment message anyone wants to hear, is it? Two women a week killed by men in the UK.

I'd say that behind that if one can sit with the stark and heartbreaking reality of the problem, there are also stories of immense and genuine bravery, solidarity, tenaciousness and patience. But it's maybe not as easy and shiny as 'you go, girl!' Instafeminism.

'Ms Shah went on the BBC’s prestigious arts programme Front Row the day the report was published, where she said that she had banished the book in part because it contained scenes of “violence, aggression, anger that had either happened online or in real life”.
Really Ms Shah? Women telling their stories of surviving rape, of their fears for their daughters’ future happiness, of losing their livelihoods because they told the truth – that human beings cannot change their sex. These stories – which millions of women can identify with – were too violent, aggressive and angry to be displayed in public?'

An eyeroll of they/thems

A tiresomeness of they/thems

An ego of they/thems

A narcissism of they/thems

A shrug?

She's no JK Rowling. She lives in a castle on the East Coast, but I think that is where the similarities end.

A delulu?

What is the collective noun for theythems?

Is Jenny Colgan terfy? Will
she combust if she goes into they bookshop?

Done a bit of digging, and it seems it was 2017 when it changed hands. And started being run by a collective of they/thems.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/15200814.end-of-an-era-as-radical-bookshop-word-power-changes-hands/

As I said, it was great.

If it's the one opposite the Pear Tree, it used to be the Word Power Bookshop when I frequented it years ago and was an actual activist bookshop, with an interesting range of challenging and unusual books about a wide range of social action issues. In this incarnation, it seems to have one, very single focus frankly.

A shame. It was a great bookshop.