Christian students at Duke University are refusing to read a recommended lesbian comic novel they and others around the country say is pornographic and propagandistic.
The graphic novel Fun Home tells the story of a young girl exploring lesbianism while she watches her troubled and troublesome father comes to terms with his homosexuality and kill himself.
Given that colleges are universities seem intent to foist the gay lifestyle upon their students, Alison Bechdel’s multiple award-winning bildungsroman seemed like a natural, particularly since the national smart set is wild about the book.
Incoming freshman Brian Grasso said on Facebook he wouldn’t read it. “I would have to compromise my personal Christian moral beliefs,” he said. His comment kicked off a campus-wide conversation about the book with many other freshman rallying to his cause.
Bechdel says her book cannot be considered pornographic since the content is not intended to sexually arouse.
Students at colleges and universities around the country are under intense pressure from faculty, administrators, and fellow students to conform to the new sexual orthodoxy. And after class, they face the onslaught and ennui of the hook-up culture.
Duke was the scene a few years ago of a student who was exposed as working in pornographic movies. The “Duke Porn Star” said she started in that business after taking classes in her “women’s studies” major and that pornography helped empower her and overcome the “patriarchy.”
Duke was also the scene of a drunken party that resulted in a stripper charging lacrosse players with raping her. That case made international news. The lacrosse players were indicted by the faculty and others but were eventually exonerated.
In the current Fun Home controversy freshman Elizabeth Snyder-Mounts asked herself, “…What kind of school am I going to?”
Grasso said, ““Duke did not seem to have people like me in mind. It was like Duke didn’t know [conservative students] existed, which surprises me.”
Fun Home spent two weeks on the New York Times best seller list and it was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won a Will Eisner [comic book] Award.
The book was made into a play that has won numerous awards including a dozen Tony nominations. At the 69th annual Tony Awards, Fun Home won for best musical.
Perhaps as the Vagina Monologues fades into obscurity, since it is now considered discriminatory against “women” without vaginas (transgenders), Fun Home will take its place as the de rigueur student play at every university and community college in your town.
Follow Austin Ruse on Twitter @austinruse
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