Freedom is Worth Fighting for.

Back to the Classics or what?

Now I've asked Karen K of Books and Chocolate to delete me from her list of participants in the challenge. It's a long story. I participated in 2018, and 2019. First year with happiness and gusto. Second year not so much, mostly because of the rather militant feminism displayed by her and some of the participants.
  Now in 2020 she did not want me to sign up for her challenge - she removed me from the entries (three times, no less) and deleted my questions and answers in the comment section of the entry-post (look further below for clarification)
  Then I modified her list to suit my preferences and entered under a new name. But it was not fun any more, every time I thought about this challenge, I felt demotivated, not angry but grumpy, bleak, depressed, irritated, and even kind of misused.
  I did not read any books, I did not write any reviews. I did not even have fun reading. Now, this morning I awoke angry. I wanted to have fun again. It's just plain ole not fun to have to censor what I say and mean because of a bunch of  American Literary SJWs. I wanted my freedom back and I have now stopped participating in Back to the Classics. My entries are going to stay on my blog, because it was fun once. 

About Karen K's deletion of my entry and comments:
This is a re-post from earlier. I can't remember if I ever pressed publish or not - probably not.

     It sure was not on my bucket list, but it is a thing I never have tried before. I've been censored, excluded or what to call it.
   In the beginning of January Karen K of Books and Chocolate removed my entry from the sign-up linky and deleted my questions and answers in the comment section. (Scroll to the bottom of this post for details)
  Even though I initially felt tempted to mis-quote Groucho and say: I don’t want to belong to any club that won't have me as a member, my stubborn streak soon surfaced.
  As a member of a minority in more ways than one in my community and a stay at home-mom to boot, I have experienced not being taken seriously, not being heard or picked and so on, but good old fashioned censorship is new to me. I have meanwhile grown a hard hide (or should that be thick or tough skin?), and I'm not going to be deterred from this special kind of fun.
  I have re-entered, but will refrain from commenting on her blog, apart from harmless comments and links to my reviews. In effect censoring myself - double standards or what?
  I might have to re-enter a couple more times, as I have been deleted again (January as well).
Then WHY am I fighting to stay on this list, stubbornly re-entering under a new name with each deletion?  Really because I hold freedom of speech for a greater good than my personal comfort. Even if Karen K do not like some of what I say, and I do not like some of what she says, we should still be able to talk together. As someone once said: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"

- - - - - - - - -

My comment:
  My crime was that I asked her why "# 3 - Classic by a Female author" was on the list again - and yes I asked that last year too, but still ... It was there for the 3rd year running. She said it was because female and non-white writers were under-represented in the Classics. And readers' appetites needed to be broadened. And I was free to not participate in the challenge if I choose to.
  I then wrote the following answer (in Word and copy-pasted, that's why I can quote myself here), whereupon my entry and comments were deleted:

  "Yes I asked last year too, I won't make this faux pas again, but I'd like to share my thoughts behind why I ask. As a disclaimer: Yes, I totally agree with you and NN (a Literature savvy reader also commenting, and deleted in the fracas. Name hidden by me) that white males dominate the Classic literature scene.
   Last year I was provoked by one of the participants, choosing only female authors, thinking that this participant ought to have her perspective broadened as well, but you all just applauded.
   This year it is the repetitiveness of it: There's so many minorities, religious, gender, racial, sexual, age, living place, economic and so on, so why do the gender-one make it to the list each year (I did not look how far back, but at least the 4 years I've been participating).
   I won't choose not to participate, as this challenge is far too much fun to me, but I might never make it to 12 books, as I choose books to read from whether they look exiting to me - I am not going to check up on the author's bio before reading - and sometimes it's hard to tell the gender on sight, especially for a non-English, as with Evelyn, Ngaio (to take 2 where at least I was surprised to learn the gender) and names like P.J. And the colour of an author can't be seen at all from a name.
  All the other categories are pertaining to the book, and that is - for me - fun, challenging and something I can see when holding the book in my hand. The two pertaining to the author (and this would be true even if the criterias were Jewish, Australian, younger than 18, etc.) I have to go play a detective in the Internet to check up on this, before borrowing or buying the book.
  Maybe this is my real problem. I can't just grab a book in the library meeting the criteria on sight."

  Possibly the better part of wisdom would have been to just shut up and sneakily avoid those two categories, but this kind of underhand behaviour is not really my style.