I was going to ignore Kathleen Hale’s Guardian piece because it doesn’t affect me. I don’t do many book reviews (though I’m working on three, right now), I don’t often read young adult novels, and now that I know Kathleen Hale is a psycho, I’ll never read or review one of her books, so I have nothing to worry about, right?

You’d think so, except…we haven’t had an issue exactly like this (that I’m aware) in the adult reviewing community, but a few companies have come damn close.

A representative from Pipedream once attacked an EdenFantasys reviewer (I think on the EdenFantasys website, but I can’t remember) for giving their product a critical review. EdenFantasys response (against recommendations made by its community-members-turned-staff) was to instruct reviewers to be more objective in reviews of toys they didn’t like. A few years later, GoodVibes has taken the same stance, calling critical reviews “sex negative” because they don’t take into consideration other people’s bodies, which, to me, sounds more like “your experience only matters if it makes us money” than concern for a person who doesn’t cum like a critical reviewer, but that’s just me.

Shiri Zinn has threatened and harassed reviewers and non-reviewers for multiple reasons, most of which include (but are not limited to) making critical comments and/or writing critical reviews about her shitty Cupcake Vibrator. She’s managed to talk such a big game that even mainstream publications that reviewed the toy (which shall remain nameless) “kept it classy” in their reviews, and avoided words like “orgasm” and “masturbation” to pander to Shiri’s “brand” of…chaste female stimulation. With a cupcake. I’m really not sure how this makes sense to anyone. Read more…