Ironially, despite being named after a suspiciously Sapphic all-female warrior nation, Amazon.com has removed the sales rankings from titles that they have deemed "adult." Most of these titles deal with homosexuality, including Ellen Degeneres's biography. The rankings of titles dealing with reversing homosexuality have not been removed. Neither have really gross dating guides for men that encourage the manipulation of women to get sex. There is also an ample selection of "marital aides" that no non-adult should be familiar with. This story was brought to light on Easter Sunday via users of Twitter. The entire blogosphere has been abuzz since yesterday, and Jezebel.com has reported extensively on the failure of Amazon to be logical and fair and for suggesting that anything gay must be somehow illicit.
Amazon has been going back and re-adding the sales ranks in the face of all the scrutiny, claiming there was a recent "glitch" (though one author claims he noticed his sales ranking was missing back in February, so…). So Heather Has Two Mommies and Lady Chatterly's Lover seem to have their rankings restored, but as you can see, Degeneres's biography is still sans ranking.
Update: Amazon released a statement in which they call the rankings controversy a "ham-fisted cataloging error." But Jezebel reports that Amazon's story has vascillated since the issue has come to light.
Update: Degeneres's biography seems to have it's ranking restored. If it weren't for Twitter, this issue may not have been resolved.
