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http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_4?url=se...
But I have found that the terms "homosexual" and "homosexuality" tend to be ones used almost exclusively by the Christian Right, whereas progressives tend towards terms like "gay", "queer", etc.
So it doesn't surprise me that a search for "homosexuality" on Amazon returns those results.
It's just like the term "Darwinism" is used by creationists instead of "evolutionary theory" which is favored by the scientific community.
The use of one particular term over another has a lot to say about one's worldview and beliefs, and those would be reflected in titles of books and the search terms used for them on Amazon and other booksellers.
Thanks, John, for giving this a wider audience.
Religion increasingly losing court battles"
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...
Frankly the days where anybody could say their bigotry was religiously inspired are in short number, and good riddance.
Based on what? I read that book when it came out. I don't recall anything in that dealt with gay themes, not that that would justify reclassifying it in the first place.
What, is Dorothy Allison gay? Is that what this is about?
That's insane.
Is "In Cold Blood" going to be subject to the same treatment?
What is Amazon thinking?
# Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Fiction > Lesbian
Watch this get explained away when they backpedal as due to a technical error.
Publisher's Weekly:
"..., an Amazon spokesperson said that a glitch had occurred in its sales ranking feature that was in the process of being fixed. The spokesperson added that there was no new adult policy."
Riiiight.
http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html
In all seriousness, a commenter at the LiveJournal metawriter community has made a guess I think may be correct. In a nutshell, Amazon is willing to "de-list" books which deal with adult themes, but they are too lazy or their programmers are too stupid to be consistent about it. As a result, terrible cultural prejudices are reflected -- even magnified -- in the outcome.
As a hetero computer geek who doesn't even read much fiction, I am freaking livid over this. If I wanted some ninny to provide me with a pre-Bowdlerized card catalog, I am sure there's a service that can do it. When I shop, I want to see what is available, dammit.
They can't be that stupid.
Search amazon front page on the term "homosexuality" & the first hit is “A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality ” (still ranked top of a list of books about how terrible & morally wrong being gay is). On the other hand, “GLBTQ: The Survival Guide for Queer and Questioning Teens" is completely invisible & unranked (as are similar books) unless you know exactly what you're looking for.
And John Barrowman's autobiography had its ranking stripped LOL.
What's next, throwing chicken bones around to divine the future or eating a cracker and saying it's a god?
This country is so hung up with voodoo christianity it can't function. I agree with your point on CNN when the country should be shitting itself with the economic crisis, the bailout and two wars we are worried if two people want to make a life committment and enjoy the same rights as everyone else.
Sad really.
I knew you could.
All right folks head on over to Powells.com for all your future book purchases...
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2009/04/12/amaz...
What gay content does "The Diving Bell and the Butterly" have?
Doesn't that make it gay to most idiot Americans?
Seems like the bottom line and good customer service has always been his focus. He's had a huge brain fart on this one if it's true. And if it's true it won't stick for long.
Didn't he see Dobson waving the white flag? Who is Amazon trying to impress? If it's true.
I can hardly wait to tell him
Well, if they're gonna do it, let them do it in the light of day.
I'm with Shawn below. If we're "protecting" the sense and sensiblilities of people who can't think for themselves, then by all means
BAN THE FUCKING BIBLE!!
That's got to be one of the most horrible collections of fables and morality stories ever written.
If every one of Aesop's Fables wound up with the main character slaughtering entire tribes of peoples, being swallowed by the earth because they don't have the right beliefs, or being forced to murder their own children to prove that an imaginary diety is so much more important than the child of the sycophant, surely they would have pulled Aesop's off the shelves.
ESPECIALLY when every subsequent story contradicts every fable written before it!
But searches for other "provocative" items such as personal luibricant, personal vibrator - even gay men - bring up all sorts of things.
Searching for "Monette, Paul" brings up lots of book listings, none with any cover art until you get to the next level down of navigation.
Meanwhile, there are almost a quarter of a million books returned when searching for "divorce."
These books show up in general searches, as do Andrew Sullivan's books. But it's really weird that Amazon would suddenly come down with this ridiculous policy. They should not be in the business of classifying or censoring books based on content.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA66510...
Uh..huh.
homosexuality and the bible
homosexuality and the politics of truth
homosexuality and christianity
homosexuality and American psychiatry
Very odd.....
"Find books, Bibles and more in our new Christian Books store."
Note the word "new." Did amazon somehow create a special priority for a "Christian Books" store? Might this explain why gays and lesbians have been demoted?
By the way, I've alway been driven to laughter in conventional bookstores by the section called "Religious Fiction." It just seems redundant to me. LOL
The best part is, I'm just about to start grad school and have about $1,500 of books to buy.
Will you finally wise up to the fact that Amazon is evil on many fronts? Many of us have tried to point this out to you in the past.
Will they delist the harry Potter series? Or did that moneymaking center escape the "glitch"?
Powell's. Yeah, it rocks.
>>>But the fact that Joseph Nicolosi and Linda Ames Nicolosi's A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality. is still ranked when Heather Has Two Mommies isn't, says it all. <<<
Amazon Bookstore in Minneapolis (lesbian owned) won a HUGE settlement against Amazon using THEIR copyrighted name, in the same business.
GOOD!
"The Joy of Sex" does not have sales figures. But the Victorian porn classic "My Secret Life" does. "Fanny Hill" does not. A few gay mysteries I've read lately do not. Something does not seem right, esp. when one straight porn classic has ratings and another does not. I am curious.
Amazon is now claiming this was a 'glitch...' but has not repaired the damage. Please keep on them.
Thanks again!
http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html
Yeah... I think Amazon may have caught on that a lot of glbt people buy online for privacy and personal safety.
What changed lately? Running Press has a new gay romance line, and its first two books, Transgressions by Erastes and False Colors by Alex Beecroft, had made the crossover from 'gay romance' to 'historical romance' and even 'historical fiction.' They made it out of the ghetto... and there's a faction in the romance industry that wants to keep that genre defined as 'one man, one woman, no sex until after they've tied the knot.'
Happy ever after for gays is the Big Scary... We're not supposed to even want that, right?
I've been a romance writer for 15 years, with three major NY publishers. I'd be happy to see gay/lesbian romance included with mainstream romance ... unfortunately, the publishers have to bow to the pressure of the large percentage of 'straight' romance readers who live in the Bible Belt. One day, love will be love (between consenting adults), and there won't be any barriers in the publishing world.
Outrageous.
Was there some sort of news blackout regarding the Sandra Cantu case in California because it was Easter and the monster who has admitted to killing her, stuffing her in a suitcase and throwing her into a pond happened to be a Baptist Sunday School Teacher? I haven't seen anything about it today on cable news. There is this about her family holding Easter Services, and its just bizarre. The focus of their Easter Service just seems very strange:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_1212853...
I would think there would be even more focus on the victim, and less on the murderer, at their church? In fact, if it were me, I don't think I could bring myself to attend an "Easter Service" at that church.
I'm thinking if the murderer had turned out to be some man who was a drifter, instead of a "prim and proper Baptist Sunday School Teacher from a minister's family" then it would be more like Polly Klaas and 24/7 non-stop coverage!
So, there's some anecdotal evidence that there wasn't a total media blackout.
-S
FIRST you will issue an apology to OUR community
THEN you will get rid of this filthy ranking system.
What really might motivate Amazon to rescind their policy is the bad publicity that this and similar sites can generate towards them.
They also might listen to some of their own gay and lesbian employees. Any GLBT Amazon employees hang out on AmericaBlog?
-Sean
Amazon's loss is Barnes & Noble.com's gain.
http://www.shopobot.com/brokeback-mountain-pape...
There isn't a 8yo on the planet that doesn't know about gays/lesbians. If your brother is 16 and doesn't know, maybe his brainstem isn't as strong as yours.
"The book was predictably heterosexual....."
maybe that would get some attention.
JG.
This is wrong as i am a Male to Female Trans authoress who has no sex scenes in any of her work, other than intermated scenes
Anyone got a site containing the news story.
For example:
1. go to amazon.com
2. Search for Heather Has Two Mommies. (The field may even may offer to auto-complete the title for you.)
3. Whoa, there's no such book. Only another book discussing the controversy over this nonexistent book. And other books written by the same author that somehow is associated with the nonexistent book Heather Has Two Mommies.
4. Oh, but if one chooses "Books" from the search, then you will get around this non-ranked filter and voila!
The "story" broke on Twitter. You can follow this subject on this Twitter search results page:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23amazonfail
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=#AmazonFail
Or link to books that have been excluded in this manner:
http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11...
Very strange.
WHO complained is what I want to know, and who listened?
Better yet, shop at your local bookseller. If you still have one.
I am very disappointed in the unfair and discriminatory policies Amazon.com has employed against books with gay or lesbian content or characters.
Please close my account.
Does anyone know of a second person to whom Amazon told this? I expected to find in the comments on his blog another person who complained to them and got the same response. I'm not saying they didn't say this to other people. I'd just like to find a second source for this story. Thanks.
http://craigspoplife.blogspot.com/2009/04/is-am...
(& there are a couple of others, I'll see if I can locate links)
But A Boys Own Story does not.
Maupin's book Tales of the City has the ranking.
Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim has rankings for both the book and the movie.
Latter Days video has a Movies & TV ranking.
An Amazon boycott is going to hurt people like me more than it is Amazon.
Still, this is very strange -- and I don't buy the "glitch" answer. Glitches don't work that way.
OTOH, it could be some low level Christian freak in Amazon's programming department who decided to earn his Creds with Christ by sabotaging gay literature.
The idea that concepts, words, images, etc can affect human beings in a way so direct and impossible to mitigate on the part of the individual that they need to be restrained for ANY reason is absurd. It is baseless. It is false.
There has never been a single event in the history of the world that would have been made better by censorship, and there will never be such. There are countless events made worse by censorship, and will be countless more.
Corporate censorship holds our culture in its grip, and it is crushing us. The next generation has a new form of art - the videogame. The most heavily, stringently censored form of media ever conceived of. The platforms are controlled by corporations so very afraid of the idiocy of bored housewives that they have neutered the medium, and are working on cutting off its arms and legs as well.
Do not stand for this. Every time you see a black bar on TV, or hear a bleeped word, or hear of a company editing a film or a videogame, or see a videogame or movie rating, or see a "warning" about content, please, be conscious of it. Be conscious of the fact that a commitee working for a corporation somewhere decided what you get to know, and the fact that there has never, in all of history, been a single instance where allowing this kind of control has been positive.
their books and other products, and this is the reply I received back.
Gerry
(from Amazon.com customer relations)
Hello,
This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that
prides itself on offering complete selection.
It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed
titles - in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories
such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica.
This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It
affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books
from Amazon's main product search.
Many books have now been fixed and we're in the process of fixing the
remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to
make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.
Thanks for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.
Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question: