Illustration responding to the 2024 Louisiana law which requires that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public classrooms.

The 10th commandment (often conveniently abbreviated to, “You shall not covet”) addresses a male reader, while treating women as property alongside a neighbors house, servants, and animals. Together with the 7th commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” the text centers male sexual urges and prescribes male conduct, leaving nothing for women and girls.

The placement of this code in public classrooms is an obvious overstep of the line separating church and state, but the text itself presents archaic, exclusionary presuppositions about gender, and an emphasis on male sexuality, which have no place in equal education. 2024