Dancing with Myself

Texas Secession

Shepard Smith Speaks for Me!

Thanks, Shep.  I know you're probably going to be in just a little hot water for this, but amen, amen, amen!

Amazon.com Responds

I sent a snippy little email to Amazon.com yesterday.  I wrote:

I am offended that Amazon.com has determined that all books with Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, and Transgendered subject matter are "adult." I am very offended, and have asked everyone in my workplace to boycott Amazon until Amazon changes its policy, apologies to the GLBT community, and does some sort of penance for its hateful policy.

They responded thusly:

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.

Satisfied?  Hardly.  They have known that Gay-themed books have been restricted as "Adult" since last February.  I think they need to come up with a better explanation than this.

 

Amazon Rank

Amazon Rank

This is a little fun from a blog called Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.  They're suggesting that we give a new definition to the words "amazon rank."  I wholeheartedly agree.

amazon rank
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): amazon ranked

1. To censor and exclude on the basis of adult content in literature (except for Playboy, Penthouse, dogfighting and graphic novels depicting incest orgies).
2. To make changes based on inconsistent applications of standards, logic and common sense.

Etymology: from 12 April 2009 removal of sales rank figures from books on Amazon.com containing sexual, erotic, romantic, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or queer content, rendering them impossible to find through basic search functions at the top of Amazon.com’s website. Titles stripped of their sales rankings include “Bastard Out of Carolina,” “Lady Chatterly’s Lover,” several romance novels, GLBTQ fiction novels, YA books, and narratives about gay people.

Example of usage: “I tried to do a report on Lady Chatterly’s Lover for English Lit, but my teacher amazon ranked me and I got an F on grounds that it was obscene.”

Alternate usage: “My girlfriend wanted to preserve her virginity, and I was happy to respect that, then she amazon ranked and decided anal sex was okay.”

Boycott Amazon.com

Amazon.com delisted the sales ranking of almost all books with GLBT content.  When their shit was called for it, they blamed in on a "glitch" which they claim to be fixing.  Interesting, is it not?  Here's a list of books which were de-listed and a list of books which were not.  We report, you decide.

Books Stripped Of Amazon Sales Rankings:

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Mayor of Castro Street by Randy Shilts

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx

And this list from a blog called Jezebel.

Wetlands
Ellen DeGeneres: A Biography
Outing Yourself: How To Come Out As Lesbian Or Gay To Your Family, Friends, And Co-Workers
Gay Life And Culture: A World History
Homosexuality And Civilization
The Way Out: The Gay Man's Guide to Freedom No Matter if You're in Denial, Closeted, Half In, Half Out, Just Out or Been Around the Block
The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man's World
Coming Out Of Shame: Transforming Gay And Lesbian Lives
The Gay And Lesbian Self-Esteem Book
Heather Has Two Mommies
Dude, You're A Fag: Masculinity And Sexuality In High School
Sexing The Body: Gender Politics And The Construction Of Sexuality
Chelsea Handler's My Horizontal Life: A Collection Of One Night Stands
Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown
Full Frontal Feminism by Feministing's Jessica Valenti
Lady Chatterley's Lover
For Yourself: The Fulfillment Of Female Sexuality
Queer Theory: An Introduction
Out In Theory: The Emergence Of Gay And Lesbian Anthropology
Diary Of A Drag Queen
The Rise And Fall of Gay Culture
A Memoir Of No One In Particular
Apples And Oranges: My Journey To Sexual Identity
Bi Lives: Bisexual Women Tell Their Stories
Bisexual Women In The 21st Century
Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Identities Over The Lifespan: Psychological Perspectives
Social Services For Gay And Lesbian Couples
The Lesbian Parenting Book: A Guide To Creating Families And Raising Children
The Truth Is...My Life In Love And Music by Melissa Etheridge
Nasty: My Family And Other Glamorous Varmints by Simon Doonan
The Praeger Book Of Transsexuality: Changing Gender to Match Mindset (Sex, Love, and Psychology)
True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism—For Families, Friends, Coworkers, and Helping Professionals
GenderQueer: Voices From Beyond The Sexual Binary
Girl Meets Girl: A Dating Survival Guide
The Art Of Meeting Women: A Guide For Gay Women
The Mayor Of Castro Street: The Life And Times Of Harvey Milk
Victory Deferred: How AIDS Changed Gay Life In America
Women, Gays, And The Constitution: The Grounds for Feminism and Gay Rights in Culture and Law
Identity And The Case For Gay Rights: Race, Gender, Religion as Analogies
Gay America: Struggle For Equality (YA)
Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Primer
Men Who Rape: The Psychology Of The Offender
Gay Day: The Golden Age of the Christopher Street Parade 1974-1983
Gay And Lesbian Washington, DC
Created Equal: Why Gay Rights Matter To America
Stone Butch Blues: A Novel
Sexual Rhetoric: Media Perspectives on Sexuality, Gender, and Identity
Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940
Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965
Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities
Odd Girls And Twilight Lovers
Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink Or Blue
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, And The Rest Of Us
My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely

Books NOT Stripped Of Amazon Sales Rankings
Fear Of Flying
Belligerence and Debauchery: The Tucker Max Stories
The Complete A**hole's Guide To Handling Chicks
Lesbian Couples: A Guide To Creating Healthy Relationships
How To Be A Happy Lesbian, A Coming Out Guide
Ron Jeremy: The Hardest Working Man In Showbiz
Traci Lords: Underneath It All
I'm With The Band: Confessions Of A Groupie
Emma And Meesha My Boy: A Two Mom Story
Boy Meets Boy (YA)
She's Not There: A Life In Two Genders
How To Be A Super Hot Woman
The Complete Idiot's Guide To Amazing Sex
Female Chauvinist Pigs
Getting Off: Pornography And the End Of Masculinity
A Parent's Guide To Preventing Homosexuality
Gay Children, Straight Parents: A Plan For Family Healing
Confessions of a Video Vixen
The Vixen Diaries
Candy Girl: A Year In The Life Of An Unlikely Stripper by Diablo Cody
A Stripper's Tail: Confessions Of A Vegas Stripper
Seduce Me! What Women Really Want
The Professional Bachelor Dating Guide: How To Exploit Her Inner Psycho
Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds
Super Beauties: Nude And Natural
Male Nude Photography: Lance And Beau
Hot Cougar Sex: Steamy Encounters With Younger Men
Exercising The Penis: How to Make Your Most Prized Organ Bigger, Harder & Healthier
Whore
The Anarchist Cookbook
Hot Luxury Girls: Best Of Sugar Posh Beauties

Amazon.com owes us an apology and an explanation.

Happy Easter!

It's a beautiful day on the central California coast, so I'm putting on my Easter bonnet a

nd heading to Dolores Park to spend the day with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.  This is  their 30th anniversary and sisters are here from all over the world.  My roommate, also known as Pope Dementia the First and Last, gave a brunch for several of them on Friday.  Below are Kiet, Chris, and Guillaume.  Later today I get to meet their Sister personnae, Sisters Ecstasia, Euphroa and Innocente.  That's Huntly in  the darker shirt and Philip looking in over their sholders.  They're the three in the magenda t-shirts.  I'll have a full report later this evening.  Meanwhile, go celebrate!

Quote of the Day

From a comment left on a story about Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann.

SELF-EXTINCTION

Today's GOP is a genetically and or psychologically deviant mélange of morally and ethically damaged mutants, miscreants and kamikaze loyalists who are crashing and burning all things Republican. They are the figurative buzzards and hyenas fighting over the last scraps of a carcass riddled with maggots and festering clumps of putrefied viscera. They are the opportunistic parasites whose very existence is and always has been dependent on sucking blood from the engorged bellies of alpha predators. The prevalence of fear, paranoia, and irrational hatred in today’s GOP represents the antemortem gasps of a doomed species struggling to survive in evaporating pools of their own toxic waste as they mercilessly slice and dice one another in futile attempts to be a big fish in an increasingly smaller and smaller pond.

    Posted by osage