Facing Homophobia With Facebook ads
Last Updated on Thursday, 21 January 2010 10:05
Written by Sam Martino
Thursday, 07 January 2010 11:11
Facebook Bans Book
“The Manly Art of Seduction, how to meet, talk to, and become intimate with anyone”, has been banned from Facebook. The reason is,“We do not allow ads for products with a sexual emphasis, including seduction, sexual health, etc.” replied Molly with no last name, the online sales operations representative for Facebook. It is doubtful that Molly is even human, since
I have not been able to engage her in any type of dialogue," says the books author Perry Brass.
Brass says that in the first week of advertising there were no problems with the book being advertised on Facebook, and in fact Facebook claimed that it would reach approximately 13,000 of it’s target audience. One has to ask the question, why would Facebook allow this ad to run for a week? Why would Facebook accept payment from Perry Brass for advertising if it were indeed offended by the content of the pages in this book? Has anyone from Facebook even read the book to deem it offensive? If it were a book titled “The Womanly Art of Seduction”, would Facebook have banned its ad? Or is it more likely that some form of the Christian right has reported the book offensive?
When asked, Facebook representatives said, “We apologize for any inconvenience but we are unable to respond to requests meant for general consumption.” It is almost impossible to get a live person on the phone, and the one time I did, I was transferred quickly to no one.
Perry Brass has stated, “What I have learned is that Facebook has censored numerous gay ads and pages. I have also found that a huge number of ads slip through on Facebook that are much more inflammatory than mine—so someone must have complained to the Facebook team about mine, and reported it. That's where I think a Christian fundamentalist front must have come in.”
Perry is the author of 15 books, and has been the subject of 6 critical studies (Masters & PhD theses). He has also been included in 25 anthologized books like “The Gay Liberation Book from Rolling Stone Press; The Male Muse, Ian Young's collection from Crossing Press, that was the world's first openly gay poetry collection (with him the youngest poet in it!); Mouth of the Dragon, the first gay male poetry 'zine; Angels of the Lyre, a wonderful early anthology from Gay Sunshine Press; Karla Jay and Allen Young's groundbreaking anthology Out of the Closets, which is still in print; The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse, the first big-house anthology of queer poetry, edited by Stephen Coote; and numerous other books
There will be a Manly Art Workshop on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at the LGBT Community Center in NY, 208 West 13th Street, 7:30 to 10 pm. Perry Brass and Jerry Kajpust, M.A., will lead a workshop based on the Manly Art of Seduction using techniques in the book and other forms of communication to encourage genuine closeness with other men and with yourself. He says that you will learn to deal with rejection, to increase your own skills, and leave the workshop growing in confidence and feelings. You do not need to read the book before the workshop. Cost for the workshop is $20.00 at the door, and $15.00 in advance. or tickets visit http://manlyartworkshop.eventbrite.com
The Manly Art of Seduction is available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. To learn more about Perry Brass: http://www.perrybrass.com/
(
but quite funny in their effect. For example, the web site Christianmingle.com likes to draw in the pious with large breasted women showing generous cleavage. In fact, the breasts on these babes sometimes strain credulity. I think some had to have been photoshopped. Then there are the "Find a woman fast!" ads which are pretty transparent escort services. OvernightMatch.net is self-explanatory as is SpeedDate. I have no problem with online sex hook-ups, but I have a BIG problem with the scumbag hypocrites at Facebook who will rake in the sex-advertising dollars and shutdown a legitimate author. Yes, you can bet they are hopping to the tune of the Christian right. That's how you do business in America.
