Texas Tech is starting to reveal which texts are banned under its new prohibition against "Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity" research. Among them are six books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Galatians. 🧵 of other banned works. Yes, this is real.
First off, much of the Greek canon has been struck from the curriculum. This includes The Odyssey and The Iliad (by Homer), Republic (by Plato), and basically everything by Sappho. I wonder if Nolan's Odyssey adaptation will be banned from film studies courses once it's released?
Lots of other pre-modern texts have been struck as well. Metamorphosis (by Ovid), The Aeneid (by Virgil), Beowulf, the Code of Hammurabi, anything by Catullus. If "gender ideology" only came about recently, as many MAGA politicians say, then how come they're banning so many ancient texts? 🧐 They made sure The Bard got some hits as well. Romeo & Juliet = BANNED. Is the admin going to be consistent and ban Taylor Swift, too?
Of course, lots of recent canonical texts are on the chopping block. In Search of Lost Time (by Proust)? Gone. Moby-Dick (by Melville)? Gone. Below is a gif of an actual Texas Tech administrator realizing that queerness is in everything.
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Some recent literary gems are also being axed from the curriculum. Persepolis (by Satrapi), Pachinko (by Lee), Fun Home (by Bechdel), Voice of the Fish (by Horn), Motherhood (by Heti), The Vanishing Half (by Bennett), and plenty more.
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I haven't heard too many specifics about banned film texts yet, but I know of at least three: Alien (by Scott) The Silence of the Lambs (by Demme) ...and Bugs Bunny cartoons. Yes, really. And yes, it's because he dresses in drag.
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The school is also banning official medical material, including the American Medical Association's documentation on "Best practices for sex and gender diversity in medical education." It's not like the AMA has relevance to a school that doubles as a hospital, right?
Of course, most recent critical theory is banned: Judith Butler. Jack Halberstam. Sara Ahmed. bell hooks. Kimberlé Crenshaw. Simone de Beauvoir. Gayatri Spivak. Indeed, when asked "Can the Subaltern Speak?" the university responded with an emphatic "no." There is a *lot* more I can't cover here, since new banned texts are coming out every day. The censors are also cowards, so rather than provide a list of contraband materials, faculty have to ask if a text is banned to receive an official response. This has three big consequences: 1) Every semester, new materials will be banned. 2) Every semester, some faculty will self-censor out of fear of retribution and job loss. 3) Every semester, Tech will have deniability about their censorship agenda. The materials I've shared here are only public because brave faculty members, after being told what they can't teach, have spoken out about it. The fight to save Texas Tech is real and it is ongoing.