Amazon censoring feminist titles, leaves porn titles

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Amazon censoring feminist titles, leaves porn titles

Postby sam » Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:57 am

Here's news gaining traction as I type. The first thing that popped into my mind was the porn industry prechewed refrain, "But we have to allow rape porn, etc. to remain uncensored or else feminist and homosexual media will be censored, Canada's Butler decision, blah blah blah."

Folks who fancy themselves anti-censorship of hate speech lest political speech be curtailed are working off a theory as dumb as the one that says prostitutes prevent men from raping. Unlimited access to all the whores, pornography, strippers, phone sex operators, and pens that undress women when held upside down have done dick to stop men from raping and otherwise mistreating women in epidemic numbers. Tolerational talk about divvvvverrrrsityyyyy taken to mean we must give bigots bullhorns in order to give minorities microphones is a PR-planted lie. Where hate speech against minorities is allowed to flourish, the ability of minorities to speak and be heard is diminished. Defending anti-woman propaganda may make fatuous feminists feel self righteous in their fulminations, but it doesn't prevent the ongoing censorship of women's voices. -sam

http://latimesblogs .latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/04/amazon-deranks-gayfriendly-books-the-twitterverse-notices.html

Amazon de-ranks so-called adult books, including National Book Award winner

"American Psycho" is Bret Easton Ellis' story of a sadistic murderer. "Unfriendly Fire" is a well-reviewed empirical analysis of military policy. But it's "Unfriendly Fire" that does not have a sales rank -- which means it would not show up in Amazon's bestseller lists, even if it sold more copies than the "Twilight" series. In some cases, being de-ranked also means being removed from Amazon's search results.

Amazon's policy of removing "adult" content from its rankings seems to be both new and unevenly implemented. On Saturday, self-published author Mark R. Probst noticed that his book had lost its ranking, and made inquiries. The response he got from Amazon's customer service explained:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.


Probst wrote a novel for young adults with gay characters set in the old West; he was concerned that gay-friendly books were being unfairly targeted. Amazon has not responded to the L.A. Times request for clarification.

Our research shows that these books have lost their ranking: "Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs, "Rubyfruit Jungle" by Rita Mae Brown, "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" by Alison Bechdel, "The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1" by Michel Foucault, "Bastard Out of Carolina" by Dorothy Allison (2005 Plume edition), "Little Birds: Erotica" by Anais Nin, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by Jean-Dominque Bauby (1997 Knopf edition), "Maurice" by E.M. Forster (2005 W.W. Norton edition) and "Becoming a Man" by Paul Monette, which won the 1992 National Book Award.

Books that remain ranked include: "Naked" by David Sedaris, "Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller, "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis, "Wifey" by Judy Blume, "The Kiss" by Kathryn Harrison, the photobooks "Playboy: Helmut Newton" and "Playboy: Six Decades of Centerfolds," "Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs, "Incest: From 'A Journal of Love'" by Anais Nin, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by Jean-Dominque Bauby (2007 Vintage International edition), "Maurice" by E.M. Forster (2005 Penguin Classics edition).
"Your orgasm can no longer dictate my oppression"

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Re: Amazon censoring feminist titles, leaves porn titles

Postby Valerie » Sun Apr 19, 2009 8:53 am

http://jezebel.com/5210647/amazon-is-em ... ging-error

Of course, Jezebel very intentionally does not mention the systematic censorship of radical feminist and/or anti-porn books, probably because she would like to do that herself. However, she does cover the fact that they appear to be fixing it while making laughable excuses.
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