Yes, Red Hood Is Banned!

Elana K. Arnold’s Red Hood rewrites Little Red Riding Hood as a story about female power, bodily autonomy, and the violence that men inflict on women. Bisou Martel lives in a small town on the edge of a forest. After she kills a wolf that attacked her, she begins to uncover a lineage of women who have fought back against predators, both animal and human. The novel braids menstruation, sexuality, and violence into a single metaphorical framework, treating the female body not as something to be ashamed of but as a source of strength. It’s visceral, unapologetic, and deliberately provocative.

Red Hood was challenged 14 times in the 2024-2025 PEN America data, with bans concentrated in Florida school districts including Broward, Hillsborough, and Palm Beach County. Alongside Damsel and What Girls Are Made Of, it makes Arnold one of the most frequently banned authors in the country. The challenges target the novel’s frank treatment of menstruation, sexuality, and gendered violence. Arnold’s books share a common thesis: that the silence surrounding women’s bodies and the violence done to them is itself a form of violence. School boards removing these books are, by Arnold’s own argument, proving her point.