Judy Blume now has a documentary, I hope it’s just the beginning
My elementary school library shelved one copy of Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. The copy was dog-eared, tattered, and its spine and cover had been taped back together at least a dozen times. The copy was the forbidden fruit of our Catholic elementary school, conservative in its approach to sex education in the 1990s. Blume’s YA novel addressed topics such as menstruation and the physical mechanics of teenage romance, the descriptions of which were so taboo that borrowing the Blume book from the school library felt effectively like a heist. No wonder Judy Blume’s name and fame are on the rise once in tandem with campaigns to ban books from young people rise in the U.S.
A new documentary Judy Blume Forever celebrates the author’s dogged commitment to publishing that is not stymied by censorship. The film premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in January. Fans of the high priestess of banned books can pay homage at select theaters, and Amazon will release the film on Prime Video on Friday, April 21. I hope that the release of this documentary is only the beginning of a flourishing appreciation of Blume, not only for her memorable contributions to literature but for her courageous willingness to create space for dialogue about topics like sexuality, particularly issues of consent.
A Crucial Lesson on the Importance of Consent
For example, Blume’s novel Forever contains themes and messaging that are oddly evergreen, even 47 years after its publication. Consent (and the lack thereof) emerges as a major tension in the story about two teenagers navigating a serious romantic relationship. The protagonist, Kath, is a gatekeeper of her body and her sexual desires in a way that is remarkable given the time in which her character comes of age.
Forever presents the notion and practice of consent in a manner that surprised me. As the mother of teenagers and a teacher of high school English, I believe that rather than censoring books like Forever, we should be running toward them. While the idea and practice of consent in this novel are fairly simplistic, enabling a transaction without penalty to the characters involved, there is much to affirm about this novel’s treatment of such an important learning for young people.
Forever follows a fairly skeletal plotline. Protagonist Kath meets Michael at a party. Michael pursues her and Kath reciprocates her interest in him. They date. Kath feels pressure from Michael to have sexual intercourse, though she explains to him she is not yet physically and mentally ready. After receiving counsel from her progressive grandmother regarding sexual health, Kath visits Planned Parenthood, and then feels adequately prepared to be intimate with Michael. All the technical and emotional mechanics of sex are discussed.
Because of the simple plot and fairly monolithic characters, some critics have suggested Forever is less of a love story and more of a step-by-step guide to a young person’s first sexual relationship. The labored emphasis on sex and birth control, the clinical descriptions of premature ejaculation, the use of condoms, a broken hymen, and a discussion of what are now typically referred to as sexually transmitted infections/diseases made the book a remarkable one at the time of its release for young readers, and continues to be called into question by critics of the genre. It is also still regularly banned.
Despite Forever’s lack of depth in plot and character development, it is impossible to discount the significance of the release of this novel in a seminal moment in U.S. history, particularly for women. As critics Jenna Spiering and Kate Kedley note, “Forever arrived on bookshelves during a dynamic and energetic moment in the history of women’s rights, including an increased ability to access women’s health care and a challenge to traditional women’s roles.”
Title IX, which continues to impact girls and women in school and in the workplace by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, was signed into law in 1972. A year later, the United States Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, which decriminalized abortion and spurred the sexual revolution, both of which remain vast political battlegrounds. These two legislative events certainly colored the world into which Kath was cast, where teen pregnancy was on the rise, but where the onus of sexual responsibility would have likely rested squarely on her shoulders as the female in a heterosexual partnership.
Judy Blume's Legacy
Blume’s oeuvre of young adult novels is largely directed at girls and women, and characters speak candidly and behave proactively about their sexual development and health. Because of this, Blume’s fiction was banned largely on the heels of the election of President Ronald Reagan. Blume said that she saw censorship not just as the parental reflex to shelter their children--but to protect themselves from being questioned. Literary critics Jason Kurtz and Nicholle Schuelke echo this: “Some adults are loathe to consider teens as sexual beings and are quick to censor teen novels that address the frank realities of sexuality in the 21st century.”
To read Forever with the wisdom and a global concept of the #MeToo movement is to understand the book in a layered context. Forever contains a whole chapter about learning to ski that serves as a working metaphor for falling in love and becoming sexually active with a person. This metaphor may elude some YA readers, but an adult re-read offers a different lens on the ways Blume treats sex as the kind of recreation that requires communication and practice—and also consent in readiness. Kath and Michael’s first time having sex is refreshingly honest in its foibles and discomfort for both parties. Kath says she can’t imagine what it would be like with someone you didn’t love—given the vulnerability of failing to mirror the passion and perfection of the movies. That Kath is given the latitude to grapple with what she truly feels is often not granted to women, as the #MeToo Movement has so often attested.
For all of its censored content, the Judy Blume Canon continues to demonstrate enduring insight into adolescent rites of passage where sexuality and consent are concerned. The limitations of heteronormativity, sexism, as well as public health intelligence around sexually transmitted diseases, can restrict some of her novels as cultural artifacts. However, contemporary readers can still plumb significance from the timeless topics of adolescence and sexuality.
No wonder the National Coalition Against Censorship has dedicated its Lifetime Achievement Award for the defense of free speech to Blume. When only half of the adolescents in the U.S. are receiving critical information about reproduction, birth control, and sexually transmitted disease prevention, Blume’s work is more than storytelling. It is, for some young people, among the most important and truthful resources they may call upon. Censorship still seeks to bar access to these stories. As another story about a naked man and woman in an immaculate garden recalls, verboten knowledge sometimes invites more intrigue than safety.