A Michigan Mom Thinks the Diary of Anne Frank is Too ‘Pornographic’ For Michigan Teens

A “concerned parent” in Michigan wants a version of The Diary of Anne Frank to be banned because it contains “pornographic” material.

In this case, “concerned parent” is shorthand for “complete f—king idiot.”

According to Gawker, Gail Horalek of Northville, Mich. filed a complaint with the local school district on behalf of her daughter, who was made uncomfortable by passages in which Frank discusses the discovery of her anatomy.

“It’s pretty graphic, and it’s pretty pornographic for seventh-grade boys and girls to be reading,” Horalek told Fox 2. “It’s inappropriate for a teacher to be giving this material out to the kids when its really the parents’ job to give the students this information.”

The pornographic passage in question:

Until I was eleven or twelve, I didn’t realize there was a second set of labia on the inside, since you couldn’t see them. What’s even funnier is that I thought urine came out of the clitoris…When you’re standing up, all you see from the front is hair. Between your legs there are two soft, cushiony things, also covered with hair, which press together when you’re standing, so you can’t see what’s inside. They separate when you sit down and they’re very red and quite fleshy on the inside. In the upper part, between the outer labia, there’s a fold of skin that, on second thought, looks like a kind of blister. That’s the clitoris.

– Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Ye gods! A teenage girl is discussing her genitals in a descriptive and borderline clinical fashion! Someone, burn the offending material — she might talk about the fact that she has breasts next!

Horalek wants the school to begin using the edited version of The Diary of Anne Frank in classes — one which was edited by Frank’s father, and omits passages about both Frank’s pubescent sexuality and challenges she’s having with her mother.

Because if anything, teenagers should be restricted from reading 1.) about the times and trials of living through one of the darkest periods in modern history, and 2.) reading material by someone who can give perspective to the things that they’re going through, written as they’re going through it themselves.

This article appears in Apr 25 – May 1, 2013.