Some incoming Duke freshmen are refusing to read a book because it might challenge their beliefs

The best part about going to college is confirming the worldview you’ve worked so hard to cultivate as a child. That’s because when you’re 18 years old you already know everything about how the world works. College is only supposed to give you more confidence in thinking that way.

So, good for these incoming Duke freshmen, who opted not to read the assigned summer reading book Fun Home because, as the student newspaper Duke Chronicle tells us, “its sexual images and themes conflicted with their personal and religious beliefs.” The horror!

These perfectly well-adjusted young people with no need for self-improvement took to the Duke Class of 2019 Facebook page to declare their brave stance, the Chronicle reports:

Freshman Brian Grasso posted in the Class of 2019 Facebook page July 26 that he would not read the book “because of the graphic visual depictions of sexuality,” igniting conversation among students. The graphic novel, written by Alison Bechdel, chronicles her relationship with her father and her issues with sexual identity.

“I feel as if I would have to compromise my personal Christian moral beliefs to read it,” Grasso wrote in the post.

There were some shocking dissidents within the ranks of the Facebook page, including Marivi Howell-Arza, who reportedly wrote that reading the book might “allow you to open your mind to a new perspective and examine a way of life and thinking with which you are unfamiliar.” Horrifying.