To get the real scoop on what I'm about to say, you need to check out the Bitches, where it's all laid out with links and everything. We all know links and I cannot coexist. :-)
It seems there's a teacher in PA, an English teacher. Been teaching for 25 years, is considered an excellent teacher, and is well loved by most of her students.
Ouyt of the blue, she became an exposé on the local TV station. A group of parents (there were 4 in the group I saw) feel that she shouldn't be teaching their naïve, innocent teenagers, because - get this - the lady writes erotic romance for Ellora's Cave under the pen name of Judy Mays.
She'd never announced this. She'd never assigned any of her books in the classroom. It was her private life and she kept it completely apart from her day job.
Suddenly she's on the fast track to be a pariah. One of the group of women even intimated that she might be a pedophile, abusing children because of her nasty habits. Teachers are not allowed a private life, evidently, and like the women of Salem they must be pure as the driven snow, with no lustful thoughts and most certainly no sechs. To write it down? To put lust and sechs into a meaningful relationship, where the characters learn and grow and earn their HEA? Anathema! (Did I spell that right?)
Anyway, there's a little corollary to this stupid story of Puritans run amuck. Of course, the Romance community gathered 'round in support. Some were buying her books so she could pay her lawyer, should she decide to sue.
I don't post much on other sites, but I could sure show my support by buying a book. The title of one in particular caught my eye-Rednecks 'n Roses and I hied myself to Amazon to pick it up.
I'd forgotten I'd heard somewhere that Ellora Cave prices were rather high. Ms Mays books run from $6.99 to $9.99. The book that caught my eye is $6.99.
Can I get it? Huh? Huh? And if I do, will you read it? Huh? Huh? (it has a vampire ...)
Okay, I've made an executive decision. I'm getting the damn book, even though I seldom read erotica. I support Ms Mays and her right to write. She got a damn raw deal, for no reason at all, because the 'reporter' never bothered to get t'other side, so it was a damn unbalanced story.
I hope her community and her school will support her rights as an American.
And as a human being.
I hope Ms. Mays gets herself a damned good lawyer and sues the ever-loving crap out of that television station and those parents.
ReplyDeleteHow dare they!!
As someone else said: an English teacher who makes money as a writer is a damned good thing. And even if she writes erotica, well it was good enough for Henry Miller and Anais Nin and that's good enough for me.
Those parents would probably burn books too. Makes me sad to call them Americans.
Though I'm proud of how quickly the romance community responded and the support. Makes me proud to be a small part of such a wonderful community.