Monday, 13 April 2009

Amazon Fail - The Snarktake

I am a very open minded person - I am accepting of all people, I teach at a school full of kids that are from widely maligned backgrounds - so it upsets me when people's choices are removed. Especially if these choices are roadblocked but unnecessary organisational wank.

I understand that there are people in the world who don't want to read about homosexual characters. That's their right. It's just like I don't want to read about excessively whiny, feminist throwbacks that fall in love with wane vampires that stalk them at night. But hey, that's my choice. Amazon's newest policy is ridiculous.

Why?

Imagine being a closeted gay teen who finds some solace and relatability in a novel that addresses homosexuality. Imagine not feeling comfortable entering a bookstore in your small, homophobic town because a) you will be judged and b) they won't be available anyway. So you go to Amazon to find a book with a protagonist that you can relate to, with subject matter you want to read and it's not there. The search function shows that the only texts available are about how not to be who you are because certain titles have been "blacklisted". Imagine that. Removing accessibility and ultimately a platform for "adult" content books is stupid and ultimately bad business - Amazon, have fun with the damage control.

This is why I have posted Jackson Pearce's vid - she explains it much better than I ever could.

8 comments:

Alea said...

OMG Jackson Pearce for the win!

Anonymous said...

I posted my responses to one of the original blog posts about how amazon fail is being burnt at the stake for this

http://thelostagency.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/amazon-burned-at-the-stake/

Shooting Stars Mag said...

hahaha oh gosh, i love Jackson. that is hilarious.

Amazon is definitely dumb. They really need to change this back b/c honestly, it's ridiculous.

di said...

Amazon has gone too far. I may have to switch to B&N links for my reviews now.

Unknown said...

I couldn't agree more.

But then again, what do you expect from a company who, until recently, allowed the sale of a rape simulation video game?

Alea said...

Taren- I don't think I ever heard about that video game. What was it? I want to look this up...

Alea said...

Ok I found it. Holy crap! I figured it would be like a small part of the game or something but it's the whole freaking game, that's the point of it. Good lord!

MoHoHawaii said...

The sales rank issue is not the only anti-gay part of Amazon. Did you know that their "search suggestions" feature is completely disabled for searches using "gay" or "lesbian" as their first word?

Normally Amazon shows you suggestions as you type characters in the search box. For example if you type "Christian m" you will see a list of suggestions including "Christian marriage". You don't have to type the full search, just select from the suggestions.

If you try this same search by typing "gay m" you get nothing. Unlike the term "Christian", the word "gay" just shuts off the search suggestions feature completely. Same for "lesbian."

This sucks.

I wonder what kind of "glitch" this can be attributed to.