The idea that women weren’t allowed
to write was never made official but
it didn’t mean that they were taken
seriously when they did.
taken seriously when they did.
Single individuals a r e n’ t t h e only victims of
censorship’s fiery wrath. In the 16th century, entire
collections of the Maya codices were burned as
a result of censorship.
“We have not collected data on gender, but I
suspect the impact on women would be harsher
because they have less social and cultural power
and privilege,” says Schrader.
The righteous and yet sinister villains the Peruvian
Inquisition did it to control any impurities that might
touch the Catholic writings at the time. Clearly it
was better to wipe out an entire civilization’s
writings than to have a different way of thinking.
Charlotte Bronte was ridiculed when she first
tried to publish poems under her true name. After
sending them to Robert Southey, he swooped in
to save her – the poor damsel in distress was in
over her head you see!
The censorship villains aren’t as drastic today but
they have evolved into something different.
“Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s
life, and it ought not to be. The more she is
engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will
she have for it, even as an accomplishment and a
recreation. To those duties you have not yet been
called, and when you are, you will be less eager
for celebrity. You will not seek in imagination for
excitement,” wrote Southey.
“Censorship has changed over the centuries
in Western cultures – it used to be about
unacceptable religious ideas (blasphemy
and heresy) and treason (espionage, political
dissidence and insurrection),” says Alvin Schrader,
PhD and Canadian Library Association (CLA)
representative. “Now it’s more about obscenity,
indecency, pornography (though this has no legal
status in Canada and the U.S.), child pornography,
profanity, sexuality, violence, homosexuality, and
in Canada hate speech.”
Well of course! A woman was not built for such
things. Her frail mind wasn’t designed to handle
her regular duties as well as to write. Her poor little
head would just explode.
The outrageous crimes of censorship once
again take hold. The superheroes fighting won’t
be forced to drink hemlock or have an entire
civilization’s works burned but that doesn’t make it
any less sinister and sneaky.
Nonetheless, Bronte responded as politely and
as properly as a woman of that time would.
“Once more allow me to thank you with sincere
gratitude. I trust, I shall never more feel ambitious
to see my name in print; if the wish should rise, I’ll
look at Southey’s letter, and suppress it.”
Today’s censorship appears in the guise of not
only what is said but also who may say it. The idea
that women weren’t allowed to write was never
made official but it didn’t mean that they were
But Bronte was no damsel; she was her own hero,
her own Super Nom de Plume. Along with her two
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Issue 18 | Missy/Ink