Amazon-dot-FAIL

[passerine]

I'm not really sure what to say about this right now that hasn't already been said, but I'm pretty well incoherent with rage, especially because one of the affected authors is my Human Behavior professor.

Apparently, Amazon.com believes that books with LGBTQ content - even at the level of Heather Has Two Mommies - are "adult materials"and thus should not be counted in sales rank.

A list of affected works is being maintained over here.

Oh! I do know what to say! Someone ought to tell the people who made this policy that Albus Dumbledore is gay, and therefore the entire Harry Potter series should be seen as "adult materials" under this new policy.

Comments

[eponymous]

There was just a post made on the Facebook Amazonfail group that is quite troubling:

"I gather that some people have already started gathering information about GLBT-themed books that have been affected by the policy, and that's great. But apparently some disability-related books have been affected too (see Lisa Egan's post on the "wall" as one example).

People with disabilities are already frequently stereotyped as being necessarily, asexual, uninterested in sex, unable to have sex, etc. All of these mistaken assumptions can lead to fatal consequences. People who run HIV/AIDS prevention programs, for example, often systematically exclude people with disabilities from their outreach efforts because they assume that they "don't need" to know about condoms or whatever. Yet, research shows that people with disabilities are actually at higher risk for HIV/AIDS than the general population. (See http://cira.med.yale.edu/globalsurvey/ for details.)

If books on disability sexuality are being targeted in the same way as are GLBT books, then people with disabilities will find it more difficult than ever before to find factual information about their own bodies and sexuality and how to care for their health. Also people who NEED to know how to provide services to people with disabilities in relation to sexuality, including HIV/AIDS educators, medical personnel and others, will find it harder to locate accurate information to replace the misinformation and prejudiced attitudes they may be carrying.

Unfortunately I have zero time on my hands to do anything extensive, but I wanted to at least make this brief post to encourage others to consider researching, and pulling together, information on disability-themed books in relation to Amazon's censorship action. If this research does find that disability-related books are being disproportionately or unfairly affected, then I urge that protests should coordinate both the GLBT angle and also the disability angle, or any other angles that are appropriate. Both the GLBT community and the disability community (as well as those of us who intersect both) should be involved with this."

(from: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=70927484220&topic=8067)