8 Books That Were Banned For Insane Reasons

Art gets banned and confronted all the time. Despite the fact that we tend to consider censorship and the removal of art from certain sectors of society a rather archaic practice from the past, it still happens regularly in modern times.

There are lots of reasons why these things happen. In general they boil down to something containing too much sex or violence, and while usually absurd, at least it's possible to sort of understand what the intention is.

But censorship is not always so simple and clear cut. In fact, it turns out things are frequently banned for completely nonsensical and illogical reasons. These instances are incredibly frustrating, especially when what's being banned is actually supposed to be useful and educational.

From one of the most important pieces of World War II literature being banned for being too depressing to a children's book being accused of partial nudity, here are eight books that were banned for insane reasons.

For many, their formative memories of Roald Dahl's The Witches – Roald Dahl's writing in general, really – probably took place during Primary or Elementary School. Despite penning a huge variety of material, Dahl is primarily known for his children's novels, The Witches being one of the more famous.

The Witches was published in 1983 and tells the story of a seven year old boy who goes live with his Norwegian grandmother after his parents are killed in a car accident. There, his grandmother tells him stories about horrific witches and how to recognise them in the real world.

Despite being considered a Dahl classic, The Witches was actually banned in schools and libraries in multiple territories for supposed promotion of misogyny. Some critics suggest that it teaches young males to grow up hating women. The issue was further aggregated by Dahl's preface, which states “I do not wish to speak badly about women. Most women are lovely. But the fact remains that all witches are women”.