Rachel Kramer Bussel & Audacia Ray discovered this morning that Amazon no longer lists a sales rank for a number of their books. For a time today, Ray’s Naked on the Internet was displayed without cover photo or reviews. Heather Corinna notes that the feminist anthology on sexual assault, Yes Means Yes, has also been stripped of its sales rank. (Update from Heather: her own book, S.E.X., is gone, as are “a pile of YA repro health guides, but strangely, others are fine. Our Bodies, Ourselves’ Changing Bodies, Changing Lives, gone, Toni Weschler’s Cycle Savvy (about menstruation and charting), gone, but Michael J. Basso’s Underground Guide to teen age Sexuality, is fine.”)
Obv, I’m not linking to their Amazon listings. You need a dildo, I can link you to that, though: those results come up fine.
They’re not alone: a policy at Amazon is excluding many more books from being ranked, and the only official explanation so far is an email from an Amazon rep to a targeted author stating that:
“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.”
While there’s nothing new about writing on women’s sexuality being dismissed as a solely pornographic concern, that doesn’t explain why Young Adult & gay romance titles have also been removed from sales rankings. Or why Surrender the Booty 3 The Search for More Arse is a “considerate” search result to return, but letting me know how many people bought Full Frontal Feminism is not.
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This is fucking sad. In the drive to increase sales, they’ve further polarized people.
Is there a mechanism to protest their classification?
Mine are gone, too - & neither book is expressly about sex OR feminism, but about MTF spectrum transgender people. “Sex” is in the subtitle of one, but there is nothing in the title or subtitle of the 2nd that would be an easy catch for a filter — unless “transgender” is one of the words.
Really really problematic. I’m wondering how/if other authors on LGBT issues are also seeing their sales rankings disappear.
As I said earlier on Twitter, I was really starting to let go of my belief that Amazon was evil. They’ve been a great resource while I’ve been trapped up here in the hills of Berkeley with no driver’s license. Oh, well. As Baudelaire said, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
Here is a message I just posted to Amazon.com:
I recently purchased a book authored by Helen Boyd, “She’s Not the Man I Married”. (This message is not about any problem with that order.) Now I read (see http://melissagira.com/sexerati/2009/04/12/amazon-removes-sales-rank-from-sexuality-queer-titles/#comment-1213) that “Amazon removes sales rank from sexuality, queer titles”. I object to this Amazon policy in general. It is homophobic and unacceptable.
I am also mystified as to why Helen Boyd’s books related to transgenderism (”My Husband Betty” & “She’s Not the Man I Married”) are included in this category of exclusion. If you actually READ either of Helen Boyd’s two books, you would discover that transgenderism is about GENDER IDENTITY, not SEXUAL PREFERENCE. In other words, transgendered people are not necessarily “queer” and queer people (i.e., gay, lesbian) are not necessarily transgendered. A commonly held notion that “transgendered” == “homosexual” is simply incorrect.
I can understand such a policy being in place regarding material that is expressly pornographic in nature. However, academic literature on transgenderism and homosexuality is certainly not pornographic by today’s generally accepted standards in our sociey.
Unless I am soon informed that Amazon’s policy cited above regarding sexuality and queer titles (also transgender titles) is being reversed, I intend to cancel my Amazon account and never again make a purchase at or through Amazon.com. I will also encourage my family, friends, and acquaintences to do the same. Please feel free to reply to me in this matter via eMail (xxx.com).
For the record, I am transgendered (M2F), I’ve been married to the same woman for over forty years, and I and my wife are both monogamous.
Sincerely, …
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[...] books about queer sex, although I’m sure those are included, but books about sexuality and/or queer topics, have lost their rankings at amazon.com. Mine [...]
[...] http://melissagira.com/sexerati/2009/04/12/amazon-removes-sales-rank-from-sexuality-queer-titles/ (Sexerati) [...]
[...] Sexerati | Amazon removes sales rank from sexuality, queer titles Rachel Kramer Bussel & Audacia Ray discovered this morning that Amazon no longer lists a sales rank for a number of their books. For a time today, Ray’s Naked on the Internet was displayed without cover photo or reviews [...]
[...] to GLBT issues and erotica, but also notably affected books on disability and sexuality as well as feminist books, books on sexuality, and books on topics such as suicide prevention and [...]