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Amazon.com launches "gay" Kindle to make up for "glitch"Seattle, WA — In the wake of Amazon.com's recent disastrous "glitch" which resulted in thousands of gay and lesbian books and authors being stripped of their sales rankings and removed from search results, the online retailer has announced they're launching new versions of the Kindle for LGBT customers, "to show our gay and lesbian customers we truly have our ham-handed fist on the pulse of gay America," said Amazon.com spokesperson Drew Herdener. The Gay Kindle will debut later this year, and AfterElton.com was able to secure a sneak peak at the product:
There will be some new enhancements to this version, as well, including the insertion of "Hey, Girlfriend!" at the beginning of all Text to Voice narrations. And to further demonstrate the company is in touch with their gay customers, the gay Kindle will also filter out all books about sports, hunting and anything mechanical because Amazon "understands our gay male customers aren't interested in that stuff." Amazon.com will also be debuting a limited collection of fashionable Kindle covers designed specifically for the Gay Kindle. The Mankini Cover
The Chaps Cover
The Leather-Bound Brokeback Mountain Cover
Asked if Amazon.com is planning to ever actually apologize to their gay and lesbian customers for the "glitch," Herdener said brightly, "no, but we did donate to the Yes on Prop. 8 campaign!" EDITOR'S UPDATE: After we published this piece, Herdener contacted us to clarify that the company actually intended to donate to the No on Prop 8. campaign, but there was "a glitch in our information flow that misdirected our funds to the opposing side." No further explanation or apology is expected. Note: This is one of a series of satirical blog posts about entertainment. Submitted by on Tue, 2009-04-14 20:23. |
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Great
Somehow his managed to
What is gay about that
I read they were going to call it the Kindling.
Nous Sommes Tous Sauvages.
I still don't understand
Not a ban, more a 'behind the counter' mess up.
There never was a 'ban' on gay books. All titles have continued to be available through this entire mess. Basically what happened (according to amazon) is that a system glitch miscategorized a huge number of books, very noticeably those with gay and lesbian themes, as 'ADULT CONTENT' and they were removed from sales rankings and some even from the main search (though a specific search for the title would still bring it up). Think of it as if those titles had gone 'behind the counter' at your local bookstore.
It seems to be a slow news week, so this is now milked for all that it's worth. Amazon has apologized, the sales rankings are in the process of being completely restored - case closed.
--
The Gays Of Daytime
I Don't Say It Nearly Enough
You are THE MAN Wolfi!
That is all.
"Heterosexuality is not normal, it's just common." (Dorothy Parker)
I emphatically disagree and would argue that
you are missing the bigger issues that we wrote about here and that TechCrunch writes about today. The real issue isn't that the glitch happened because some French employee pushed the wrong button, but the assumptions that made that glitch possible in the first place. And the scary assumption Amazon made about the gay community is that gay=adult and not adult "grown-up" but adult "illicit", "x-rated" and "prurient". And that is an asuumption that modern culture makes about gay issues all the times. It is the logic school libraries use trying to ban gay books, the logic internet filters use screening out sites such as AfterElton and the logic many people still use to justify discriminating against gay people adopting, getting married, etc. (BTW, putting gay books "behind the counter" would be a huge deal! It's basically censorship!)
Sorry, but I don't think covering the Amazon story has been "milking it". It speaks to very significant issues in our culture.
I emphatically disagree and would argue that
As the Wall Street Journal reports today, this is the work of a computer security expert who wanted to point out that Amazons flagging system can (as it undoubtedly been) can be used to ban any book that a bigoted user at Amazon wishes to be banned. That coincides with Amazon's initial eMails to complaints and their first response once the problem was realized: they dismantled the flagging system.
Dressing up a rainbow colored kindle in a leather outfit...
...speaks of 'very significant issues in our culture'?? :-). And yes, I GET that it was meant to be a joke.
I think you make some very valid points and I agree with some of it, however... I think the REALLY bigger picture is that AMAZON with its near-complete supply of gay and lesbian fiction and non-fiction in books & movies has made a considerable impact on folks in the LGBT community that, unfortunately, your local gay bookstore in SF, LA or NY could have never had.
Going back to kindle, a search for the device alone brings up - at this moment - 1,193 Gay & Lesbian- specific FICTION titles:
http://www.amazon.com/Gay-Lesbian-Genre-Fiction-Books/b/qid=1239817309/ref=sr_tc_img_2_0?ie=UTF8&node=172503011
A global search for the word 'gay' returns 227,606 (!) entries in books and 2,725 DVDs.
http://www.amazon.com/Gay-Lesbian-Genre-Fiction-Books/b/qid=1239817309/ref=sr_tc_img_2_0?ie=UTF8&node=172503011
So while I agree that amazon's glitch was a bit of mess, it was NOT a ban. It's not like you suddenly couldn't buy the titles anymore- which was the original posters question. It was a glitch, and an unfortunate one at that, but any sort of small scale witchhunt on amazon is uncalled for IMHO.
--
The Gays Of Daytime
No, writing an entire article about it speaks to
A Ban is a Ban is a Ban
IT DOES NOT MATTER IF AMAZON ACTUALLY DID THE FLAGGING OR THE BANNING THEM SELVES. The effect is the same when a bunch of bigots flag a book at Amazon, or a video at YouTube, and are allowed to decide what works get filed away. They decide that gay expression is banned, buried, never to see the light of day. That Amazon is working to undo the problem that this erroneous flagging created is encouraging. The fact that Amazon is still allowing the AFA and anti-gay haters to deem what is permissible on the site through flagging is disparaging to the gay community. Amazon is culpable in this instance because of their complacency. The fact that they have re-introduced flagging to their site after shutting it down because of this "glitch" says that Amazon actually WANTS the AFA to flag and burry gay books on their site.
not a glitch
Wake up people. It's clear this wasn't a "glitch" but the work of someone trying to expose the danger of Amazons flagging system, a system that allows bigots, or anyone, to remove a book from Amazon's ranks, like all of those gay books over Easter Weekend. Amazon will never admit to that. If this were a catalog error, like they said, it could be reversed in a matter of minutes with the flip of a switch. But because it is a ranking error, they are scrambling to find out which books are effected and how to de-rank them. It's scares me to see Amazon not stand up to the truth on this and suggests that they actually wanted bigots to flag innocent gay works.
I didn't notice the glitch...
I shop on Amazon...a lot, and more than likely will not stop doing so. I didn't even notice the change had occurred. I check my "Amazon recommends" pretty regularly, as I've found a lot of great books that way, and always have (ever since Amazon discovered I was gay) and am still receiving "gay themed" books in my recommendations.
The optimist in me tends to believe this was just a glitch, or the doings of someone within the company, and not a deliberate slight by Amazon. In my experience with Amazon, they have always been gay friendly, a very good place to buy gay fiction, gay movie, music, etc. They have never made it difficult for me to find titles, and as stated, always are recommending titles that I may be interested in. Long before Borders had a gay/lesbian section, Amazon had the titles available. Borders, of course, has since followed, but their selection is a bit spotty, at least my local Borders. We don’t all live in areas that have local shops where we can go. The closest gay/lesbian book store to my house is an hour away. So, I have Borders and I have Amazon. I’m much more apt to find what I’m looking for on Amazon…
On a related topic, will the afterelton books tab be updated any time soon? Other than the Amazon article, the last update was back in January for January Books. Just wanted you to know there was at least 1 person out here that misses the updates….
Hmm, it appears we forgot to check a box when we
On Amazon.com two days ago,
On Amazon.com two days ago, mysteriously, the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books: "Transgressions" by Erastes and "False Colors" by Alex Beecroft.
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