Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Amazon Continues to Promote Normalisation of Sexual Violence.

Mr Nongkynrih,

I find it difficult to believe that you 'value the feedback of your customers', as you state, when you are clearly hiding from the obvious truth that you are offending and upsetting many, many people by stocking this 'toy'. You are doing the wrong thing.

And stating that you require a parent's consent for a child to shop at your store hardly makes everything ok. I find it offensive and disturbing that a Rapist doll is being sold at all, I am as concerned by adults buying this product as well as children.

In a society where one in four women have been raped, or have experienced attempted rape, your profiting from selling a RAPIST TOY is disgusting.

Have you no ethics or conscience about promoting sexual violence and its normalisation in society?

Having dolls called 'Rapist Number 1' on sale is distasteful, immoral, offensive, unethical and irresponsible. Your company is trivialising rape, and this is unforgiveable.

I again demand that you withdraw this item from sale immediately.

hippie

Thank you for writing to Amazon.co.uk with your concerns.

I am sorry to hear that you are upset by this item's "Rapist Number
1 from Planet Terror" inclusion in our Toys & Games store on
Amazon.co.uk.

Our goal as a retailer is to provide customers with the broadest
selection possible so they can find, discover and buy any item they
might be seeking. Such a broad selection will inevitably include
some items which some people may find distasteful or otherwise
objectionable.

As stated in Amazon.co.uk's Conditions of Use, as posted on their
website (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/202-
2896130-4273436?ie=UTF8&nodeId=1040616), "If you are under 18, you
may use Amazon.com only with involvement of a parent or guardian."
We expect the customers shopping on our site to be adults who may
make their own decisions about which products they choose to browse
or purchase.

However, I have passed your comments along to the appropriate
department in our company for consideration. We value all feedback
from our customers, and I thank you again for taking the time to
send us your comments about this issue.

If you have any other suggestions for us or would like to make a
comment at another time, please don't hesitate to send us an
e-mail. To do this, please visit our Help Desk at the following URL:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/contact-us

Thanks you so much for contacting us at Amazon.co.uk.

Warmest regards

Aaron Nongkynrih
Customer Service
Amazon.co.uk


see post Rapist for Sale for background information.

3 comments:

slowdown said...

Hi Hippie

I got the same sort of brush-off when I emailed them, but have just received a second response in which they say that "this item
has now been renamed as 'Action Figure from the Planet Terror'".

I've just checked on Amazon, and indeed 'tis so. I'm amazed they didn't have the wherewithal to do that themselves from the start.

Will forward you the email exchange, as their first response was quite baffling!

Anonymous said...

Yes it has been renamed but the problem is that a)it is still the top item if you put rapist number one into the search engine on Amazon.co.uk and b)the packaging says 'rapist no 1' on it - I have seen the offending item for real.

Quentin Tarantino thought it was a hilarious joke (and no doubt a big ego trip) to play a character called 'rapist no 1', have a doll made of this character and then say it would be sold in Toys R Us (NB it never was going to be sold in Toys R Us and Toys R Us were not amused by this). He just seems to think violence against women is a bit of a laugh. Which is why I'm not going to shop at Amazon again - just renaming the figure isn't adequate.

Anonymous said...

"I demand you withdraw this item."

'DEMAND'! Arf arf! Get you! How's the demanding working out for you?