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

[OhBuggerandArse]

Took it out of their centenary exhibition because the staff LGBT+ network kicked up a fuss. Craven. This really needs massive public challenge and push back - if the National Library isn't able to fend off the censors we are utterly lost. https://x.com/EthelWrites/status/1955390550494023958

Here @porridgecake
https://www.thetimes.com/article/8c144b2d-9ec0-4abb-923c-5567417ce81a?shareToken=99c856f8a2caba68149e80908a9d664d

Thank you! Had a slightly challenging morning here involving fox poo and bathing a dog. I will now sit down and read it properly while towels are in washing machine.

That is such a great idea! It should attract a wide range of people, because it's not just us rights-hoarding dinosaurs who are alarmed by this censorship [TRAs may indulge in semantics, but that's what it boils down to].

edited to say: replying to the suggestion of a read-in.
further edited to say to porridgecake that I wasn't suggesting that her dog rolling in fox poo would attract a wide range of people😂

Could we organise doing it, online, by this week inOctober? https://bannedbooksweek.org
obviously am hoping that they will have u-turned by then and it won’t be necessary…

Could it be online as well as in person for people who can't get to Edinburgh?

I read it before you edited and just thought you were having a difficult day 🤣🤣

Definately!

I’m thinking a mumsnet class action lawsuit might give them the kick up the ars they need

What platform would work, do you think? I'm sure I've seen something similar for an international Bloomsday reading of the whole of Ulysses, but can't remember how they organised it.

I'm not sure, sorry - my experience of shared platforms are limited to Teams or Zoom. There must be something that would work though - with someone chucking out the rainbow frothers as they inevitably appear.

I think you'd have to find a way of getting people to sign up for slots, and passages, in advance, and then live-stream rather than letting people into a room to watch.

Ah, I just imagined a crowd or relay of women going into the library to read their own copies to themselves in prominent places round the building. Sadly, I’m a very long way from Edinburgh

You'd need to consider how to do it carefully without risk of disruption or doxxing. Plenty bad faith actors and trolls about unfortunately.

Perhaps people could video themselves reading out passages they consider really important, explain why and then upload the videos to…somewhere? Maybe 3-5 min each?

That would be great.

I think there's a read-a-thon going on at the Fringe at the moment of the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War. Something like the of the WWWW would be brilliant.

That was in 2016! I did a bit of it.

The advantage was that it was both on-site and the readers were broadcast on-line, though I think it was before web-casting really took off so I'm not sure how widely spread it was.

I'm sure I read about it this morning. I must have clicked a link to an old article. Unless...it was a massive report, could they still be reading it?

I posted a link to it on this thread!

D'oh! Well that explains it.

Is it actually going to be a shock to A Shah (she/her) that she's chosen to actively discriminate?

Self.justification is quite an art.

But that is why, if we could come up with some kind of demo/read-in, it would be really good to do it at or near the NLS itself. Online is perhaps too easy to ignore. In person, with a good range of diverse people, is much more effective in saying ‘oi, we are here and we matter too’.