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Would You Buy the "Shortbus" DVD? What About Pulling It?
July 16, 2008

There's no denying that the unrated 2006 indie film Shortbus, directed by John Cameron Mitchell, is sexually explicit, as evidenced by this extensive, graphic list in the movie's IDMB Parent's Guide. (Heck, look at the tagline: "You've got to get on to get off.") But this "pansexual comedy" (in the words of the Hollywood Reporter) has also won awards and received positive reviews, so there's certainly an argument for including it in a library's collection. It is available via Netflix, which eschews porn.

A Bloomington Public Library, IL, library patron complained that the film was "pornographic," according to a July 1 report in the Pantagraph, setting off a library review and a furious debate in the comment section of the newspaper. Many commenters pointed out that the film couldn't be pornographic and those who don't like it should leave it alone, and that the library shouldn't remove materials from its shelves. Others said that, in a library that allows anyone access to the collection, there should be more safeguards regarding age-inappropriate material.

Pulling the film
In an article today, the newspaper reported that the library's review committee unanimously agreed to remove the film, after watching the film, consulting reviews, and checking to see if it's in similar-sized libraries. (Here's a WorldCat list of libraries in the region; more are academic libraries, but some are public libraries.) “We went back and looked at the film, reconsidered and it was unanimous decision to pull it,” director Georgia Bouda told the newspaper.

Needless to say, the comments section in the newspaper has been very busy. 

A good decision?
From here in New York, it's not easy to second-guess local libraries, but it sure sounds to me that, by pulling the film, the library, unwittingly or not, is endorsing the complainant's designation of a sexually explicit film as "pornographic." Yes, I know that parents are responsible for their children's library use. And, as my colleague John Berry has written, censorship and politics are local.

But the availability of Shortbus and materials like it back the argument that a library might offer parents the option of a juvenile card allowing them to restrict their children's use--an option not endorsed by the American Library Association (according to the document Access for Children and Young Adults to Nonprint Materials) and not available in many libraries, including Bloomington. 

Isn't that a better alternative than pulling an award-winning film off the shelves?

Posted by Norman Oder on July 16, 2008 | Comments (2)