Society habitually deals with that which makes it feel uncomfortable by pushing it away. From provocative images in the art to questionable ideas in everyday discourse, social trends often tend towards discouraging intellectual discourse because of the perceived promotion of such views. One such method of discouragement is book banning. Banning books to deal with problems of questionable ideas and behavior, however, is ultimately counter-intuitive. This solution inherently fails because it never deals with the notion of the action being a problem. It presupposes an idea of what is normal and what should be socially endorsed without analyzing the validity of other views.
             In Merrimack, New Hampshire, the Shakespearean work Twelfth Night was banned under the school board's policy of "prohibition of alternative lifestyle instruction." In the play, a woman dresses in men's clothing and takes on masculine behavior. The interaction between both genders is explored. When love is introduced into the play, the audience sees how gender roles affect the way that each character reacts to a given situation. Viola, because of her cross-dressing, is responded to as a man would be. At face value, labeling this behavior as cross-dressing is easy. However, when taking a Judith Butler approach to deconstructing the use of such labels, problems in doing so emerge.
             Criticisms of the play put it into arguably unjustified contemporary terms. The underlying assumption of the behavior of the play is that of "cross-dressing." However, Viola-the character whose behavior is called into question-has very different motives than many who engage in that behavior in modern times. Viola is shipwrecked and separated from her brother off the coast of an imaginary country named Illyria. Viola believes that without her brother, she will be unable to survive in a patriarchal society. She cuts her hair, dons a fake mustache, and dresses in men's clothing less as a sta...