But don't drop the balloons just yet. This is only half the battle. There are other books like this, and this, and this.
This boycott is not about one book. It is about asking a big business powerhouse to take a stand for decency. We are not asking them to remove anything but those products which glorify child-adult sexual relations, aka pedophilia. That includes not only how-to manuals but fiction novels.
If you feel the removal of the book was enough for you to lift your personal boycott, go ahead, I won't judge you. It is a personal decision. For me it is not. And this is why:
- Censorship is when government controls what its citizens read, watch, hear etc. Amazon is not government, it is business.
- As a business, Amazon has the RIGHT to not sell any item they feel goes against the standards they set as a business.
- Amazon will not sell anything pornographic. This type of material is mental pornography for pedophiles.
I am asking Amazon not only to remove the book which started this storm, but all books and materials in that vein. I am waiting for them to take a stand and officially state that they will no longer offer such items.
I say I am waiting for them to OFFICIALLY STATE this because, sadly this is not the first time Amazon has been embroiled in this topic. If you search you will see that this issue has come up several times before. On those occasions Amazon has chosen to use the freedom of speech excuse or pull only the item which caused the outcry.
I am calling for lasting change.
If you do choose to stick with the boycott as I will, until official change is announced then please sign my boycott linky, as well as the Facebook Boycott PAGE 1 and PAGE 2.
I find it interesting that Amazon is choosing to call it censorship/a free speech issue when clearly this is not. They are misusing the word censorship to their own advantage, and people who ought to know better are going along with it.
ReplyDeleteUsually, I am against anything that impedes free speech, but this book has/is hurting innocent children. Besides, Amazon is not the government so it can decide what it markets, and from its response, the only thing Amazon is concerned with is profit. I do not usually buy things from Amazon but they have lost my business. This made me so mad I had to blog about it too.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to jump on an issue and run with it, but I feel very strongly about this for personal reasons. Because of the many, many revolting decisions that Amazon has made for the almighty dollar, they will never see my business again.
ReplyDeleteI really hoped that those three you linked to were all there was (or the worst examples). Now I feel sick.
ReplyDeleteThere are DVDs - I am assuming more of the "love story" type since amazon doesn't sell "porn." Some of it looked awfully close to the porn line to me.
It makes me sick.
It's such an interesting issue. Censorship VS a business practice VS defining what 'it' is!
ReplyDeleteI'm watching closely, it's so shocking any of it is sold ANYwhere much less on Amazon where it's so readily available...
Not like a walk in store where someone will see the person picking it up off the shelf ya know??
Did you know that those that you linked to are no longer there? None of them.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how they chose which ones to get rid of, maybe it was people complaining in the wake of the other book or how many people complained about a specific title. There are other ones but they are removing some of them.