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redqueen

(115,103 posts)
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 08:15 PM Mar 2013

The Power of Social Media – Boycott Amazon for Misogyny

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I posted a link about it on a couple of Feminist groups and in the morning, after a fitful night’s sleep I found multiple comments on my posts, which I found heartening, but I soon discovered there were still multiple offensive, misogynistic items for sale on Amazon (and eBay, and Zazzle). I started copying the links of these items and taking some screenshots.

I was given the email address of the Amazon UK CEO. I emailed him. On Twitter, Lee Chalmers posted that she was glad to see the rape t-shirt had been taken down from AmazonUK. In response I linked to and sent her a picture of a t-shirt, also from US Company Solid Gold Bomb, with the slogan “Keep Calm and Hit Her”. Lee retweeted this post, and the retweets and replies started coming in by the hundreds. When Caitlin Moran, Lauren Laverne and Martha Lane Fox took it up, we were clearly winning the internet.

We found t-shirts with misogynist slogans like “9 out of 10 people enjoy gang rape” from (Chargrilled), and multiple variations on the theme of “Keep Calm and ……. Her”, e.g. Kill, Choke, Burn, Harm, Bomb. Note that at no point, despite much searching, did we see any items with pronoun “Him”. Inherently mysogynistic then.

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Misogyny is never acceptable. Violence against women is never acceptable. And Amazon, where’s our apology? The items have been taken down from the Amazon UK website, but there has been no apology, just a one line statement that the “items are not available for sale”. Not good enough, Amazon.

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http://sisterphonetica.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/the-power-of-social-media-boycott-amazon-for-misogyny/
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The Power of Social Media – Boycott Amazon for Misogyny (Original Post) redqueen Mar 2013 OP
*kick* Richardo Mar 2013 #1
they've long been selling these books hfojvt Mar 2013 #2
If I understand this correctly (and I may not be) marybourg Mar 2013 #3
Uh....no. Android3.14 Mar 2013 #4

marybourg

(12,634 posts)
3. If I understand this correctly (and I may not be)
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 10:23 PM
Mar 2013

someone using WORDPRESS to host a blog is complaining about AMAZON third-party hosting an objectionable product? Just bizarre. Does she/he know the kind of items wordpress has third-party hosted over the years?? Besides, UK Amazon is very easy to do without. It's nothing like the US version.

 

Android3.14

(5,402 posts)
4. Uh....no.
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 10:58 PM
Mar 2013

Amazon does just fine, and I have no intention of boycotting them. Somehow I suspect they have products that promote violence towards men, plants, dolphins, and left-handed pickled okra smugglers.
Boycotting Amazon over this issue would be like refusing to use the Brooklyn Bridge because members of the NRA drive across it.
At best it is a distraction. At the worst it is hypocritical grandstanding.

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