‘HISTORY UNDER FIRE’

Judy Blume Shades ‘Drunk With Power’ DeSantis for School Censorship Bills

The children’s author recalled the moral panic of the 1980s, calling the current tremors of book-banning and public education restrictions “the ’80s on steroids.”

Beloved children’s author Judy Blume has made her voice heard on the subject of censorship, public education, and the right to read in recent weeks, telling the BBC over the weekend that book banning “has become political… it’s worse than it was in the ‘80s.” She went further on Tuesday, calling the current moral panic “the ‘80s on steroids” and pointedly calling out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his part in stoking the flames. “A governor who wants to control everything,” she told the crowd at a New York City luncheon hosted by Variety, “starting with what kids can think, what they can know, what they can question, what they can learn, and now even what they can talk about.” Blume recalled how she faced backlash from the religious right after publishing 1970’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, warning that “this time” the threat of censorship is coming directly from the government. “Lawmakers, drunk with power, with a need to control everything,” she said Tuesday. “Sure it’s still sexuality, but it’s gender, it’s LGBTQ+, it’s racism, it’s history itself that’s under fire.”