My Goodreads account was banned for being gender critical!

submitted by Applecat from self.GenderCritical

I'm so upset right now I can barely type.

I created a gender critical Goodreads account in 2018 so I could keep track of both radical feminist reads and also the number of books transing children and transing the dead.

With no explanation, my account was deleted:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/88423595-applecat

All of my shelves are likewise gone:

https://www.goodreads.com/genres/transing-children

https://www.goodreads.com/genres/transing-the-dead

I had shelves for gender ideology, female erasure, as well as non-trans topics. I had also posted a few critical reviews of children's books promoting this terrible gender ideology. Everything was wiped out in the blink of an eye. Any advice? I'm so terribly upset right now. Is there any way to get my account back? I had hundreds of books catalogued. I had over 115 for "transing children" alone.

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[–]BEB 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Can you contact Goodreads and complain (I have no idea how it works)?

If you're on Twitter, contact the Women's Liberation Front (WoLF) and just let them know so they can perhaps spread the word that Goodreads are hand maidens for Trans, Inc. @womenslibfront

Also Kara Dansky maybe with the Women's Human Rights Campaign:

@kdansky

Also, contact Abigail Shrier (IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE author) and Helen Joyce via Twitter.

Joyce is coming out with a GC book soon and she also works for THE ECONOMIST so might be able to get some shaming of Goodreads started.

[–]MarkTwainiac 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Amazon wouldn't allow Shrier's book to be advertised on the Amazon site, so I think it's unrealistic to expect Goodreads to be more open to "GC" views than the parent company. The Goodreads terms of service "community guidelines" say

"Goodreads reserves the right to remove content at any time for any reason. It is at our sole discretion to decide when content violates our guidelines."

https://www.goodreads.com/community/guidelines

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/glamazon-at-amazon-eighteen-years-of-change

Amazon gets a perfect score from the Scrotum Rights Campaign and has given CEO & founder Jeff Bezos its "Equality Award."

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/a-perfect-score

Amazon is fully signed up to "diversity & inclusion." The policy statements I've seen say all mention "gender" but not "sex":

"We are a company of builders who bring varying backgrounds, ideas, and points of view to inventing on behalf of our customers. Our diverse perspectives come from many sources including gender, race, age, national origin, sexual orientation, culture, education, and professional and life experience. We are committed to diversity and inclusion and always look for ways to scale our impact as we grow."

https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace/diversity-inclusion

[–]WildApples 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I wish there was an organization grading these companies on women's rights. Are there any companies left that have not jumped on the gender bandwagon?

[–]aloris342 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Maybe we should make one.

[–]Applecat[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thank you. I still need the find the password for the burner email I used to sign up for Goodreads, so I haven't contacted them yet.

I am not on Twitter, but feel free to spread this news far and wide. Maybe Goodreads can be shamed into reversing their decision. People should know they are censoring members and will delete accounts without even a warning. I went to log in yesterday, and it said my password was incorrect. Then I tried to visit my profile, and it was gone.

And I can assure everyone I was on my very best behavior. I never contacted any of these authors. I did not leave comments on other people's reviews. I did not join any groups. I had my privacy settings set so that no one could message me or leave comments on my reviews, as I did not want to be drawn into debate. All I did was rate and shelve books. I also posted 3 or 4 reviews, but I was very measured and said nothing that could remotely be construed as a slur. All I did was correctly identify the characters' and authors' sexes.

[–]DR373737 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

This is becoming really scary. Just last we I read an article on how the feminist library removed gender critical books.

[–]Applecat[S] 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If you had told me things would be like this 20 years ago, I would never have believed you. It feels like we are living in a dystopia.

[–]Greykittymomma 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

How exactly can people claim to be feminist and NOT gender critical? Kind of the whole fucking point eh? "Don't treat us different because we are women," that's it, not "Make us NOT women so we aren't treated different." See how backward they are?

My favorite thing is when our issues suddenly are important... because transwomen. Fuck you dudes!!

[–]Applecat[S] 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I was able to retrieve one of my reviews, which had been archived on another site:

When Aidan Became a Brother by Kyle Lukoff

Sad, confusing, and regressive story of a little girl who is presented to the world as a boy simply because she does not identify with sexist stereotypes. It's a depressing trend in modern picture books. A young child no than four or five years old is presented as not liking stereotypical things associated with their biological sex. These preferences are then used to support the idea that in fact the child is not their biological sex at all. In this story young Aidan doesn't feel like a girl. What it means to feel like a girl is never explained. Why a female child is not allowed to have masculine interests, masculine clothing, a short haircut, or a boyish bedroom without being told she is a boy is a mystery to this reader. 'They changed his bedroom into a place where he belonged. He also took much better care of his new clothes.' The fact that a little girl can have a boyish bedroom is never acknowledged. The fact that a little girl can wear clothes bought in the boys' section of a store is never acknowledged. Instead these things are presented as proof positive that this young child, again a girl of preschool age, is somehow a literal boy. There is no indication this child hates her body, only that her feminine name, clothing, and bedroom don't feel right to her. Not conforming to sex role stereotypes is presented as a valid reason to say to the world that a child is a member of the opposite sex and should have been born as the opposite sex. I simply do not understand how these messages are passing for progressive. As a committed feminist of many years, women have spent decades fighting the idea that there is only one way to be a girl. It's very sad that young female children today are being told that if they are insufficiently feminine they may actually be transgender instead of their biological sex.

I'm glad to find it because this was, in fact, my only in-depth review. At one point, it was one of the most popular views for this book. It had at least 11 likes, which just goes to show that many readers are not buying into this ideology being pushed on children.

[–]Archie 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I'm not taking a big risk by saying this here, but I find this review very powerful and difficult to dispute. Thank you for taking the time to do what you're doing.

[–]Applecat[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thank you. It's something I wish none of us had to do. But I refuse to remain silent.

[–]WildApples 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

That really sucks. I think at this point we have to accept that all the big tech companies are actively censoring gender critical ideas and promoting TRA ideas, and we need to divest from them as best we can. Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Google, Wordpress, Discord, etc. are all engaging in egregious viewpoint censorship. I notice Reddit keeps recommending GenderCynical (a TRA sub) posts in its weekly e-mails to me despite the fact that I have never subscribed to that sub. I am sure it is not a coincidence; they are blatantly trying to manipulate people's thinking.

I am worried about how we can even properly mobilize going forward. Most organizing and event advertising is done on these tech platforms, and they have the power and frequently demonstrated willingness to shut down any protests and groups we might plan to resist this and other movements. I want to find other gender critical allies near me, but any groups I might find or form on these platforms for the purpose of GC organizing will be quickly banned. The tech companies are successfully isolating us and keeping us from forming a united front against the erosion of women's rights. It is depressing.

We need to back up all our online content, use print and off-line resources whenever we can, and try to stick to independent servers that are not owned by Big Tech. We need to stop letting these companies have enough power over us that they can cripple our attempts to mobilize for our rights.

[–]aloris342 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I agree with you. The pandemic has made this much worse but the power of immense corporations is the essential problem. They can crush dissent and they are weirdly all aligned in the same direction.

[–]aloris342 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Actually this is one of the more concerning things I have read recently because it indicates that there is effort to stop people from communicating the truth to one another. If I wish to pick books for my children that avoid pushing transgender ideology, it would be helpful to read reviews from other people who read it with an eye to that concern. But this prevents me from knowing whether such topics are present in books I pick for my children.

[–]Applecat[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yes, that's why I began compiling these titles. I thought it would be helpful to parents and teachers to know how far gender ideology has infiltrated the world of children's literature. The number of transed child characters has simply exploded in recent years.

[–]aloris342 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, that is worrying, isn't it? We should probably start thinking of ways to archive all of our data, ways that are independent of technology or that cannot be "canceled."

[–]devushka 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Not Goodreads too! I use them to keep track of the books I read in a year.

[–]Applecat[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I never would have expected it. I was so shocked yesterday.

[–]vijfkeervier 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I tried to see if any of your account info was saved by google cache and I found a twitter thread from last May by some TRAs targeting you and other GR users guilty of giving too many low ratings to LGBT books (even some accounts set to private). They noticed your shelves as well. Google goodreads applecat and it should appear on the first page.

[edit] It seems like that person posting usernames is a female, identity-obsessed, agender asexual librarian, who is probably angry about low ratings because she herself wrote a crappy sounding LGBT fantasy novel about an 'aro-ace' prince and his dragon fighting marriage traditions. lol

[–]Applecat[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, I discovered that when I searched my Goodreads name.

This just goes to show that no matter how tiny and insignificant you may think you are, there are people out there watching.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I'll keep this in mind. I don't want my account deleted. Even if you read Paulo Coelho or Isabel Allende in spanish, once they suspect you of even a minor infraction, they turn the "eye of sauron" on you. I've been isolated for being suspected of "hate thoughts" in some places. And all for people who are wannabes. I mean, if a child is a wannabe skateboarder and always wrecks, we don't make special clinics for wannabe skaters or ban people from saying anything negative about them. It's like a weird form of child coddling.

[–]Applecat[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It was probably my downfall that my whole account was dedicated to gender critical and radfem topics.

[–]Camberian 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Try http://booklikes.com

The owners are Polish, it is hosted in Europe AFAIK and I doubt they have a problem with anything gendercritical.

librarything.com also appears to have no problem shelving GC books.

[–]Liz-B-Anne 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I hate to be that person but I wonder if it has to do with the new prez and his pro-trans, pro-censorship views? Your account was fine until now which is why I say that. In no way am I a Trump supporter but the censorship has kicked up a notch in the wake of the Jan 6th insurrection.

[–]Applecat[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Doing further research, it appears I may have been specifically targeted:

https://bookriot.com/goodreads-homophobia

[–]Applecat[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Also see here:

https://twitter.com/EmeryLeeWho/status/1332857595854393345

One of the authors was definitely offended.

[–]WildApples 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

This is so surreal. And the reactions! "I am so sorry this is happening." Someone would think you'd killed the authors children! There is nothing creepy about the terms gender ideology, female erasure, and transing children. They may not like the tags, but their subjective aversion does not make the tags inappropriate.

[–]Applecat[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The author calls herself 'transmasc' so it's obviously quite a personal issue for her. I feel sorry these young women are suffering, but their blatant denial of reality helps no one. If calling women female is now hate speech, I dread to think what the future will bring.