homophobia & Amazon.com

[rm]

http://vashtan.livejournal.com/490173.html
http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11369.html

Amazon removes rankings from books with homosexual characters, including from at least one YA book, because they don't wish to include "adult" content in their rankings out of respect to the range of their membership.

Queer content does not inherently equal sexual or "adult" content.

We've got a big problem on our hands with this one.

If you find a targetted media product, add to list here: http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11992.html

Comments

[woogledesigns.livejournal.com]

hmmm. I think the problem is perceived as being 'we can't explain what homosexuality is without explaining what sex is, and that's inherently adult.'

Possible solutions- use the same language that is used to sanitize heterosexuality to obfuscate homosexuality eg:
"Some people tend to fall in love with women, and some people tend to fall in love with men, and you never know which you are until you start to fall in love..."

Of course some people may think that being queer is a deviance and therefore has to be kept from children. Not sure what to do about that except ask amazon to take a stand, in essence deliberately disrespecting one portion of it's consumer base to ethically side with another portion.

[gairid.livejournal.com]

I just read about this and to say I am dismayed is a true understatement--infuriated is more the word.

Respect for the 'range of their membership'? Oh, give me a break. I wonder which fundie wingnut group crawled up Amazon's ass to provoke this kind of response?

[rm.livejournal.com]

I've looked up some books I know and love: unaffected. I wonder if there were complaints against specific books, if only stuff with smaller presses is being targetted or what. Even if it's one rogue staff member, there's a serious issue. They're getting a nastygram from me later today.

[saharafic.livejournal.com]

And...tweeted. I really hope this clears up, as my Kindle is needing more books...

[gairid.livejournal.com]

I've looked up some books I know and love: unaffected Well, that's interesting. Doesn't get them off the hook, though. An avalanche of complaints might goose them a bit.

I'll be emailing them as well. I buy a lot through Amazon and this really pisses me off.

[vashtan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'll try and gather the cases that are affected.

[autumnyte.livejournal.com]

Oh, fuck this.

[better-late24.livejournal.com]

That's pretty damned stupid, especially since I can easily find ACTUAL adult content on their site.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Well, damn. I was already mostly boycotting them over they way they dick over small presses, but I hadn't quite pulled the pitchforks and torches out of the cling wrap.

Out of respect for the range of their membership? They don't want GLBTQ people to be part of their "membership"?

I'm going to need some matches...

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

I'm passing this on.

[vashtan.livejournal.com]

We're collection books that are affected:

http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11992.html

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Good idea!

.. how can they take the sales rank off Brokeback Mountain? That film got several Oscar nods! (Do we know if the original Proulx short story collection where it came from, "Open Range" has also been mucked-about with, or just the separate "BBM" volume?)

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I heard about this from alex_beecroft, whose novel False Colours, an m/m historical romance, had just broken through and was ranking in top 10 historical novels-- i.e. non-romance, non-gay-- and then it suddenly disappeared entirely from the rankings.
The novel is NOT erotica, contains only one non-explicit sex scene, but the central premise features two male characters falling in love.

[vashtan.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I added that

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

I have a couple friends who work for Amazon. I'll be asking them some questions later.

[rm.livejournal.com]

One of the links contains a letter from an Amazon employee vaguely explaining the policy, which might be of interest to you in advance of question posing.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Is that the one about "to cater to our membership" or whatever?

I IM'd one of them--who is an LGBTQ ally--and said, "I know you have NOTHING to do with this, but I wanted to let you know it's happening," and sent a link to one of the posts.

So hopefully he can give us some insight.

[eac.livejournal.com]

This can't stand.

Forgive me for asking (rather than rereading all the attached posts to see whether I've missed it) but has anyone clearly identified the right place to send a complaint about this?

Also, when does Amazon bow down and do something to respect MY END of the range of their membership?

[vashtan.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I can't wait to hear an explanation that makes sense.

[sushis.livejournal.com]

I linked to this entry on my Twitter. Think I will on my LJ, too.

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

That's incredibly disappointing. I just bought a Kindle, too.

[rm.livejournal.com]

connect-help@amazon.com

[baxaphobia.livejournal.com]

I heard about this from imafarmgirl Sigh.

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

Do you know, offhand if straight erotica are also being removed from the rankings?

Amazon has ton of porn of all orientations.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

What does amazon do to small presses?