Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
I would. I stayed out of the pedophile book discussion, because I'm not sure what I think of instruction manuals for crimes (although I do own a set of books called "How To Kill," vols 1-5), and can understand the problems with distributing books that tell people how to commit crimes and evade the law; I'm not sure that some felonies should be more acceptable to publish about than others. But fiction is not instruction manuals; novels that contain depictions of crimes aren't instructing or encouraging people to commit those crimes. (If they are, murder mysteries should be removed from the shelves.)
I read erotica, including gay erotica, including books with sexual activities that would be illegal or immoral in real life. I could offer solid psychological and sociological reasons for the existence of these books and the importance of exploring these themes in literature; I'm not going to clutter the thread with that because I suspect that the people who think "those are icky topics and anyone who reads them is a vile pervert" aren't going to be persuaded otherwise, because they're not basing those opinions on anything rational, just their own gut revulsion at the topic itself. Everyone else doesn't need the explanation, because the real issue isn't "is this, or is it not, Real Art and therefore justifiable" but "should one segment of society be allowed to tell another what they can enjoy reading?"
In this case, Amazon is banning books with themes of gay rape. If they're not also banning books with themes of heterosexual rape, that's likely very illegal. (Discrimination by sexual orientation is illegal in many US states.) And there are a great many heterosexual romance novels that are founded on rape--she's abducted by a tall, dark stranger, who ravages her for weeks, and she gradually grows to love him anyway.
If those are not next on the list to be banned, then Amazon is not removing "objectionable content," but showing its bigotry and reinforcing the notion that gay sex is somehow less moral than straight sex.
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Why is your attraction to these topics more rational that somebody's revulsion? You find it arousing or attractive in some way and other don't.
And, again, why do you feel the need to force people to carry things that you agree with? Many people who claim to just want to be left alone actually want to force their opinions on people.