Quick take: Differentiating between Michelangelo's David and Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer

 For those who follow the news of the stupid, a school principal in Florida has been fired for displaying one of the most horrifyingly pornographic depictions ever.  Michelangelo's David.  The principal did not issue trigger warnings, and David had them in the sights of his love gun.  Cue freakout.  C'mon.  It's not like he's packin' that much heat!  George Costanza will be the first to leap to his defense on the shrinkage issue.  Regardless, consider something else that causes controversy.  Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer.  Whether or not you have heard of this particular work will depend on the news bubble you inhabit.  If you only permit yourself to take in news from left-leaning sources, you will likely be unaware of this book, which has been common in schools, and the cause of much consternation.  Why?  Consider some of the content and images.  I am not going to post the images here, but you may click on that link if you wish to see an example.  There are many.  Here's a test.  Take the controversial passages and images from Kobabe's book, and make them cis/heterosexual.  Would parents still object?  Yes.  Would the same parents still object?  Yes.  Would more parents object?  Yes, because without the politics of Gender Queer, some proportion of the few who know about it and defend its presence in schools would not defend it.

David?  Anyone who objects should be ridiculed, scorned, and dismissed.

Yet the empirical observation should be made that schools are facing issues on both.  If you want a complete picture of what is happening in schools, you must know that Gender Queer has been put in schools, and you must know why parents object.  If you want to argue for its presence in schools, then do so.  Make that argument.  There are teachers who will make that argument, curriculum designers, and plenty of activists, although they don't tend to do so loudly because it is easier for them to point to David.

Similarly, it is easier for those focused on books like Gender Queer to ignore what is happening to David, Toni Morrison, and other works.

Can we differentiate between Gender Queer and David?  If you don't think so, then take them both or leave them both.  If you do differentiate between them, then acknowledge how, and acknowledge the importance of doing so.  Consider:  If you have a husband or boyfriend who is going to pose for something, suppose it is a sculpture in the tradition of David.  Do you object?  Suppose it is that image from Gender Queer.  Do you have a reaction that is at least slightly different?  You probably do.  That's because it is different.

Here's Albert King, "The Hunter," from Born Under A Bad Sign.  Yes, KISS stole that metaphor from Albert King.