13 Reasons Why Should Not Be Banned

Hannah Baker was lonely, ostracized, and had experienced too much pain to lift it off her shoulders.  She knew harassment far too well, and finally she decided to end it all.  She was gone, just an empty desk where she once sat.  Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher, has been challenged in many schools due to the detailed and traumatizing events Hannah describes throughout the book.  Because it is very descriptive, people fear that it will be putting ideas into young people’s minds before they are ready.  Although the book contains under aged drinking, rape, and suicide, it has a strong message about bullying and harassment, and therefore, should be kept in libraries in every middle school.

            Some parents, including Thomas F. Bertonneau, believe that the book is too heavy for their children to read.  He writes in his article, Thirteen Reasons Why Not, “The novel is obscene under the normally understood meaning of that term.  It deals explicitly, in reductive and graphic terms, with actions and events that are crassly sexual and emotionally base.”  It is true, the book deals with many topics that could be too much for a student to read, and the scenes are described very graphically.  An example of this is when Hannah is being molested by a boy named Bryce: “You started kissing my shoulder, my neck, sliding your fingers in and out.”  A scene like this could traumatize a person if they’re immature, but the effect on a mature person would be very different.  They might understand how wrong it is, and learn how rape could affect a person.

            On the other hand, there are many reasons that the book should be kept in libraries, versus it being thrown out, or banned.  One reason is that it puts a very dark light on bullying and by explaining the effects it can have on a person, and in Thirteen Reasons Why, that person is Hannah Baker.   In one scene in the book that Hannah describes, she is at a party.  A girl that was once her best friend is so drunk, she’s unresponsive, and is laying on a bed in a room.  Justin Foley lets Bryce in, and one thing leads to another.  Hannah is trapped in the closet, wanting her life to be over, for it all to end.  She targets Justin with two sentences in that tape:  “First, you started a chain of events that ruined my life.  Now, you were working on hers.”  Those lines express just how deep a scar can be etched in a person by bullying and rape.  They are sharpened knives, cutting deeper and deeper into people, until they’re heart doesn’t have enough strength to beat anymore.  It is written in an article Banned Book Awareness: 13 Reasons Why, that the book could be the thing to get “…people to realize that every action- or inaction- has consequences.”  This is referring to the fact that every time a person bullies another, they could be severely hurting them.

            Additionally, the book teaches you to trust your friends, not to listen to rumors about them, and to never leave or target a person because of the rumors.  Among the many reasons why Hannah Baker committed suicide, is her former friend, Jessica.  Jessica believes a rumor about Hannah and her boyfriend, and decides that she can’t be her friend anymore, on false pretenses.  She feels abandoned and alone, and begins to believe that the world is made up of lies.  Hannah says to Jessica, when she is accusing Hannah, “You can’t know rumors.”  The fact that a rumor broke their friendship could show a reader of the book how the rumors they hear aren’t necessarily true. Banned Book Awareness: 13 Reasons Why asks “Have you ever exaggerated the truth in order to impress someone without thinking about how that lie could hurt someone else?”  Rumors like this ruin people’s life, and a reader might understand this after reading the book.

            Hannah expresses the raw truths of bullying and rape, and people will see this truth at one point in their life.  The book teaches lessons and morals, and explains why participating in spreading rumors, or physically harassing someone will never be an okay thing to do.  Thirteen Reasons Why puts the armor on people, so they are ready for negative experiences, and possibly could show them how to avoid them altogether.  If a book has the power to do this for younger readers, it should be kept in libraries. 

Works Cited:

Bertonneau, Thomas F. "Thirteen Reasons Why Not." The Thinking Housewife. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.

"Banned Books Awareness:." Banned Books Awareness. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.

Social Issues/Awareness Project

Project Overview

In my project, I have included a poem, as well as a response to a movie/film, and an interview with Erika Lunceford.  The poem Under Your Armor, is about the issues in our society where someone simply looks at you, and decides that what they see is who they are.  Some call this "judging a book by its cover."  My response is to a movie called Cyberbully, which is about a girl who is harassed online, and is eventually driven to commit suicide.  I felt that this movie portrayed the raw truth of what happens outside of school, in your own home.  My interview with my mother, Erika Lunceford, is about her work with an organization called Woman in Technology, which works to have more women in the technological world.  I think her work is important because there aren't enough woman in this industry, and with more, they could be level with men.


Under Your Armour

People look at you,

And decide that you are not the same,

They judge you on the outside,

They don't even listen to what you're trying to say.

Those people, they don't even try,

To look under your skin, on the inside,

They try to force you to be someone,

Do they want you to lie?

And it's not fair,

You should be who you want to be,

And I wish you didn't care,

Because being you, that's when you are winning.

Just take off your armor,

And let down your guard,

Because if everyone does this,

There won't be judgement anymore.

People pay attention,

To your color shape and size,

But they don't even think about,

The sound of your cries at night.

And the truth is they don't know,

They don't know me,

They don't know her,

They truly have no idea, of the people we might be.

The ones that judge,

They're the ones that are lost,

And at one point they will find out,

That being in power has a cost.

Because if you, take off your armor,

And let down your guard,

If everyone does this,

They can't be judges anymore.

Response to Cyberbully

     The movie, Cyberbully, is about a girl that begins to be a target on the internet, and is driven to a point where she thinks that not being alive would be better for everyone, and attempts to commit suicide.  She is called a "slut," "whore," and many other names on a website called Clickster.  When she becomes unpopular and is targeted by many people at school, her two best friends leave her.  She is suddenly caught alone in a river of hate that she is slowly drowning in.

      This movie made me think about the problems that social media causes for many people, both children, teens, and adults.  It brings yet another weapon to the table, one that's much stronger than others.  In many cases, people re targeted by anonymous or fake people, which truly makes it worse because you don't know who it is, you think it could be anyone, and this quickly turns into everyone in your mind.  This feeling of loneliness and isolation tears people down, piece by piece, until there is barely enough to consider you to even be there.  At that point, you decide that it would just be easier, or more heroic to take those last pieces of you that are left, instead of letting others be the ones to take them.
     I believe that there needs to be rules and/or laws put in place to limit cyber bullying.  It can truly ruin someone, and it's just way too easy.  Cyber bullying is where I feel most bullying currently occurs, and without it, life would be a lot better.  Cyberbully expressed and explained the raw truth of what happens on the internet, and awareness needs to be spread.



Interview With Erika Lunceford (AKA My Mom)

My mother, Erika Lunceford, participates in an organization called Women in Technology (an organization within BNY Mellon's Women's Initiative program) that is working to encourage women to be and stay in technology, and get more women into senior management positions.

What are some problems that women currently have?

Well some of the problems that women have is that there aren't natural social structures.  Such as, men have built up over the years, to help women network and get better jobs within an organization.  Other problems that women face is that they do take on a majority of house hold duties, such as caring for children, cleaning, cooking, and so they have a lot of those family pressures and they tend to be called upon to solve those, rather than the men.  Other items are really the stereotypes within society that say women aren't good at math and science.  Women In Technology really focuses on getting really good smart women into our program, so we really reach out to colleges, to try to bring in young women, as well as to break down some of those barriers to help older women along in their careers.

What rights do you believe women should have in financial services and technology?

Well women should really have the option and the ability to move themselves up.  There is something that happens with women in business vs. men in business.  So, men get hired for jobs base on their potential to do the job, where women are hired after they have proven they are able to do the job.  And so, sometimes this makes it difficult to move them selves along because they aren't as self promoting.  I would really like for women to have is that management and others recognize women for what they have accomplished, and proactively work with those women to move them up within the organization, rather than the women having to always self promote herself.  The other thing I would like to see is that women are sitting in the head of the company in leadership positions.  There is a very small percentage of women that in board of directors or executive levels within the world, it's less than 20% that sit at those levels.

What is the organization doing to reach their goals?  How will you know when you have reached them?

We have taken a multi-prong approach, where we have actually set up multiple sub-committees.  Some of those sub-committees are out reach programs to schools.  I'm actually co-chairing a sub-committee called sponsor-ship which is to put senior managers with women in the organization to really, basically groom them for their next level in their careers.  Then there are multiple Leanin circles that we have formed, so women have support groups, where they can talk about issues that they're dealing with in a day to day basis.  And then we're measuring our progress in metrics.  So, we're working closely with Human Resources to track it and see if over the next few years we see a game change, where more woman are moving to senior positions, and making progress on this front.

Do you believe that men have too much power, and that they should be lowered?

I believe that men have too much control, but I'm not looking for men to be lowered, I just want more women to be in positions of control as well, working alongside those men.


What are the problems that you have had in rising in the industry of financial services and technology?

Well, I think the first problems really started in the way I was raised; not being encouraged to go to college, and I was actually raised in a fundamental religious household where it was believed that men had a higher authority than women, and so that's where it sort of started.  But then when I started working, I was good at what I did, I payed attention to detail, got things done, very responisble person, and I think the challenges that I faced were really understanding how to navigate, and how to have mentors that could help me along.  And because there isn't a natural place for women to get that, espcially when you're constantly sitting in a room full of men, every time you go to a meeting, or you go to anything, you're always around men.  Sometimes it becomes a little intimidating, and so you have to put your self out there more.  Over time, I have developed a little bit more of a style, where when I think something is right, I'm confident in my judgement, and I go ahead and do it.  I'll take action on it if I think it's the right thing, and if people don't like it, then I'll apologize for it later.  Many women will actually look for authority in order to take those actions, and so that's sort of a mind change that needs to start occurring.