Still No Real Answers from Amazon

Amazon has issued a cryptic statement about making a terrible cataloging error and apologizing to the gay and lesbian community. But many questions remain. Were they intending to de-rank erotica and just so happened to make a mistake to include Heather Has Two Mommies?

They need to come out with a full statement of their intentions and their philosophy. If there has been a sudden, secret plan to hide all erotica and keep it from being easily accessed, I'm going to continue to boycott them. Even if the inclusion of "gay and lesbian" in their banned books criteria was a mistake, the act of a secret mass round-up of books itself is objectionable. Amazon could, for example, provide a special filter for customers who can't bear to see such traumatizing titles and book covers and let the rest of us endure the horrors at our own discretion. Or they could put a banner at the top of the book's page: contains adult content. But the consumer should be allowed to make the judgment.

Apologizing to the gay and lesbian community is necessary, but not enough, and I hope the outcry does not die down into complacency. It's like saying prejudice against African Americans is bad, but it's okay to discriminate against Mexicans. I think this debacle demonstrates that any censorship is dangerous.

In an article linked to the one above, the reporter was commenting that Amazon does not release sales figures for Five Minute Erotica, snigger, snigger. Grow up, people and stop being such hypocrites. The majority of us have sex, all of us have erotic desires, and Amazon has certainly made plenty of money off of it. Oh, well, enough for now. I'm still really upset by this!