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A Catastrophy of Amazonian Proportion
Apr. 13th, 2009 11:16 pmThe saga continues.
The bloody Guardian.
Neil posted about Amazon!Fail on his own blog. It has earned a mention on Feministing, in which an Amazon rep specifically says it was not a glitch.
I'm crossing my fingers for The Daily Show.
The issue has moved to Meta as can be read in a fascinating article on the super fantastic website AfterEllen, which I found via![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rm who herself wrote about the glitch, and I quote:
Which ties in with the Amazon Rep told Feministing.
Human error.
Not everything can be blamed on the HAL 9000.
The AfterEllen article, titled What Amazon's "Glitch" Says About American Pop Culture.
American Pop Culture, is everyone's pop culture. Despite being Israeli and writing with English spelling and using British slang, my first and foremost frame of reference is Americana.
This is especially true when it comes to LGBT representation and Queer liberation - because despite the British teevee that I watch being very gay-friendly, most of what we watch is written, produced, made by the USA.
And in the USA (and the rest of the world of course), Queers are defined by sex, the having of.
Now it's been a while since behaviour dictated identity, but still you have to admit on teevee, if the character isn't "doing it" with someone of the same sex... how are you going to know... unless they come out.
Which is another issue, of course, the coming out, the declaration, the need to affirm that no, they are not "sisters" and why, yes that is the leading man with that other guy.
At the same time, the double standard is maintained. Straight characters get to have depth and more to them than sex.
Queer characters... not so much as a general rule, certainly on regular network television.
I think it all boils down to visibility and invisibility.
Queer visibility is important, crucial and yeah, I think it's safe to say affirming. At the same time, when the only visibility we get is either as fetish items or "single issue" characters... that says something about how the Queer persona is regarded by pop culture and by default everyone.
The bloody Guardian.
Neil posted about Amazon!Fail on his own blog. It has earned a mention on Feministing, in which an Amazon rep specifically says it was not a glitch.
I'm crossing my fingers for The Daily Show.
The issue has moved to Meta as can be read in a fascinating article on the super fantastic website AfterEllen, which I found via
rm who herself wrote about the glitch, and I quote:Computers do what you tell them to. This is a glitch that involved human error, homophobic human error. Amazon needs to issue a clear statement that what happened was against policy, is being corrected, is being investigated and that they enjoy serving a broad spectrum of customers, including those interested in gay and lesbian topics.
Which ties in with the Amazon Rep told Feministing.
Human error.
Not everything can be blamed on the HAL 9000.
The AfterEllen article, titled What Amazon's "Glitch" Says About American Pop Culture.
American Pop Culture, is everyone's pop culture. Despite being Israeli and writing with English spelling and using British slang, my first and foremost frame of reference is Americana.
This is especially true when it comes to LGBT representation and Queer liberation - because despite the British teevee that I watch being very gay-friendly, most of what we watch is written, produced, made by the USA.
And in the USA (and the rest of the world of course), Queers are defined by sex, the having of.
Now it's been a while since behaviour dictated identity, but still you have to admit on teevee, if the character isn't "doing it" with someone of the same sex... how are you going to know... unless they come out.
Which is another issue, of course, the coming out, the declaration, the need to affirm that no, they are not "sisters" and why, yes that is the leading man with that other guy.
At the same time, the double standard is maintained. Straight characters get to have depth and more to them than sex.
Queer characters... not so much as a general rule, certainly on regular network television.
I think it all boils down to visibility and invisibility.
Queer visibility is important, crucial and yeah, I think it's safe to say affirming. At the same time, when the only visibility we get is either as fetish items or "single issue" characters... that says something about how the Queer persona is regarded by pop culture and by default everyone.
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