AmazonFAIL
Rare public post - because this needs to be spread far and wide!
So, those of you who spent the day celebrating Easter or Passover or watching the zombies shamble through Davis Square may have missed this one. Amazon has been removing sales rankings from books deemed to be "adult". Apparently, this list also includes"Heather Has Two Mommies" - for those of you who haven't heard of it, it is a children's book. "The Well of Loneliness", a lesbian romance - and trust me, there ain't no sex in this book - has been de-ranked. "Bastard out of Carolina" by Dorothy Allison - also de-ranked.
There's lots of blog entries floating around, but one of the best is Mark R. Probst's (thanks gendercrash for the heads up on this whole thing)
On the home front - "The Fenway Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health" has been de-ranked. It also seems that Butch is a Noun and Supervillainz have been de-ranked (now, I see that Butch is a Noun is not sold directly by Amazon, but by sellers - but Supervillainz is shipped directly FROM Amazon)
The LA Times reports that Amazon is claiming that this is all due to some sort of "glitch" - but when the Amazon Director of Corporate Communications is asked outright why LGBT books are disproportionately impacted...all of a sudden, it's NO COMMENT.
In addition, many books about disability and sexuality have been de-ranked as well. That's not getting anywhere near the press, but is just as horrid.
ETA: Yes Means Yes has also been de-ranked, so has Full Frontal Feminism
So, those of you who spent the day celebrating Easter or Passover or watching the zombies shamble through Davis Square may have missed this one. Amazon has been removing sales rankings from books deemed to be "adult". Apparently, this list also includes"Heather Has Two Mommies" - for those of you who haven't heard of it, it is a children's book. "The Well of Loneliness", a lesbian romance - and trust me, there ain't no sex in this book - has been de-ranked. "Bastard out of Carolina" by Dorothy Allison - also de-ranked.
There's lots of blog entries floating around, but one of the best is Mark R. Probst's (thanks gendercrash for the heads up on this whole thing)
On the home front - "The Fenway Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health" has been de-ranked. It also seems that Butch is a Noun and Supervillainz have been de-ranked (now, I see that Butch is a Noun is not sold directly by Amazon, but by sellers - but Supervillainz is shipped directly FROM Amazon)
The LA Times reports that Amazon is claiming that this is all due to some sort of "glitch" - but when the Amazon Director of Corporate Communications is asked outright why LGBT books are disproportionately impacted...all of a sudden, it's NO COMMENT.
In addition, many books about disability and sexuality have been de-ranked as well. That's not getting anywhere near the press, but is just as horrid.
ETA: Yes Means Yes has also been de-ranked, so has Full Frontal Feminism