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Is Salacious Content Driving E-Book Sales?
narramissic writes "Having already abandoned ebooks once, Barnes & Noble is jumping back into ebooks with the purchase this week of ebook seller Fictionwise. Why is the format suddenly hot? Look no further than the top 10 Fictionwise bestsellers, says blogger Peter Smith. Once again it seems like 'porn is blazing a path to a new media format. Of the top 10 bestsellers under the 'Multiformat' category, nine are tagged 'erotica' and the last is 'dark fantasy.' Need more proof that folks (let's take a leap and call them women) who read 'bodice rippers' like the privacy of ebooks? Author Samantha Lucas (who writes for publishers like Cobblestone Press and Siren Publishing) tells Smith that she sells almost all of her novels in ebook format."
that it only takes one hand to use a mouse?
The e-book is for porn!
Friends help you move...
REAL Friends help you move dead bodies... ^_^
I used to read alt.stories.erotica way back in the 9600 baud days. The only thing new here is that people are paying for it.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Men read erotica, too!
Of course, it's Ghost in the Shell meets X-Files fanfic, but still, erotic.
The ability to turn pages one-handed is touted as one of the big improvements of the Kindle 2.
Draw your own conclusions.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
This is the first time in history that salacious content has driven book sales.
Plus screens are much less absorbant and can be wiped clean.
So, how does that correlate with http://www.pcworld.com/article/160566/utah_online_porn_capital_of_america.html
Salacious Crumb is driving Star Wars E-Book sales.
My wife doesn't read bodice-rippers, but most of the sci-fi/fantasy books she reads has a strong romantic or relationship component. IE Vorkosigan Saga, Wizard's Rule series, etc.
It might just be because she just got hers, but she has been spending a lot more time reading lately. Bought a fair chunk, then raided a hundred or two books from my e-library.
as always
Pornography has always been at the forefront of technology. VHS, DVD, they were the first to really start using DRM on video content, too. A quick search on Google for 'porn technology' will give you lots of articles on the subject.
Love sees no species.
Why don't they just say "vampire"?
[badum-ching]
A Human Right
Seems like buying books for cash is more anonymous than leaving an e-commerce trail.
I supposed it depends on how big a town you live in.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
No kidding, my daughter is 20 and she reads tremendous quantity's of male-male porn. We were talking about her "book collection" about a month ago and she told me that she now gets the stories off the internet.
Rather obviously, I am posting this as AC.
Sales for the Kindle do not seem to bear this out: Kindle bestsellers. I see no porn in the top 25.
The cake is a pie
Not the "porn is what drives adoption of all new formats and technologies" explanation again... has everyone already forgotten that HD DVD was supposed to win over Blu-Ray because of its early adoption by the porn industry? There were only, oh, a few thousand posts to that effect right here on Slashdot - right up until HD DVD died.
#DeleteChrome
What?
Support my political activism on Patreon.
That would be interesting if the chance to read naughty lit in public drives the sales of a $350 e-book reader.
Think Deeply.
People have evolved to be interested in sex. Those that aren't die out. So of course if the web provides a means to look at boobies, it's going to get more popular...and if an ebook reader allows you to read about people having sex, those who are interested might turn to it. It's a hell of a lot more discrete to use an ebook reader than have a sexually explicit book open. You don't have to hide it behind something else to avoid attracting attention or getting into trouble.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
If she likes the Wizard's Rule series by Goodkind, I think she'll really enjoy the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. If she likes dark fiction with a strong tragic-hero element, I think she'll also enjoy the Eternal Champion series by Michael Moorcock, particularly the Elric books.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Let's not forget that the kindle 2 now handles 16 shades of gray, and the size of foldouts is virtually limitless with Next/Prev page functionality.
Having worked in the ebook industry for +N years, and knowing sales figures, the top two sellers of all time: the KJV bible, and the Kamasutra. There is a certain company who is willing to sell this sort of stuff, and there is another who is not for fear of loosing the cash cow 'bible sales'
There are a number of Lucas Kindle titles on Amazon.
Yet something else for the Internet Watch Foundation to keep an eye on. There needs to be a repository where people can freely read the ebooks (or at least search for keywords) so that indecent or potentially illegal material can be found and blocked before these materials can be purchased or downloaded. Deep packet inspection may be necessary in the transmission of these materials across boarders.
I hope this is satire.
:-).
If not, I say to you that if you want to engage in censorship you will always be able to find some noble-sounding "for the children" type of excuse for doing so and lots of misguided people with good intentions and no understanding of the Law of Unintended Consequences will happily and fervently join you in this cause. That doesn't make it right, however.
Again I hope this was satire. If it isn't, and if you fully understand my paragraph above and comprehend the incredible amount of damage that naive but well-intentioned people can do and still think that you have some kind of "holy cause" that overrides these concerns, I invite you to tell me why, for I believe that the weakness of that position is easy to reveal. If it was satire, then I think you already revealed how shallow this mentality is
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Perfect format, they should co-market with screen wipes.
... this is clearly a privacy issue, not a pornography issue. If it were common for me to read in public places, like at work on my lunch break, a e-book would be far better than a typical paperback. Why, because then no one could learn what I am reading unless I tell them.
I don't read anything to be embarrassed about, but I can imagine it is awkward for women into those trash romance novels to hold a lewd covered book when sitting across the aisle from their boss.
Or what about people reading the Bible, Koran, or other religious manuscript. I have seen the way people look at folks reading such material on subways.
E-Books are great for everyone concerned about others judging them by what they read. Hell, in some cities you can be judged by which news paper you read... god forbid your conservative boss sees you reading the New York Times. I know I would hate to have a perfectly good working relationship ruined because I think homosexuals should be allowed to marry and raise children.
I am all for personal privacy in all things personal. I am not a conspiracy theorist that thinks the government or big business is spying and gonna use information against me... but I don't want my reading material, music tastes, or social/political beliefs to be an issue with those I wouldn't readily discuss such things with. A good ebook reader and some head phones allow me to consume media privately, if for no other reason than that.
Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
This is the first time in history that salacious content has driven book sales.
No, it isn't. And again, no.
And for the record, dammit, I guess I need to re-think my novel... AGAIN. Good-bye, black-humour social satire, hello throbbing shafts of love and steamy windows of desire.
Now I can get all the disgusting Spock/Kirk slash that people post at -1 in eBook format!
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
I'm sorry, but what a narrow-minded post.
Flamebait is flamebait, regardless of whether or not it is actually what you believe. What matters is what everyone else believes. Even if you were right, it would still be flamebait. That you posted anonymously just adds fuel for those who wish to flame you.
Next time, try to find support for your beliefs. (Non-flamebait posts have evidence if they disagree with the majority.) Maybe, when you don't find any support, you can post something else.
No, when it's what you actually believe it's discussion. When you post it for the sole purpose of pissing off or offending other people with no regard for whether you actually believe it or not, it's Flamebait. For example, I would not be the least bit surprised if most of the racist jokes I see on here are from people who are not actually racist but enjoy the strong reactions most others have to such highly offensive jokes.
I posted anonymously precisely because of responses like yours, to be very honest with you. You are capable of open acceptance, even of things you dislike or don't understand, but I am not getting that from you at all. Instead I am getting somebody pontificating to me about how I should express myself, as though that were for you to determine. Somebody who, I might add, complains that I posted anonymously while doing the same thing himself.
Also, I refuse to take on any additional burden of proof that someone who conforms to the majority would not be expected to deal with. That's because every human being is equal and popularity does not determine truth, so I reject the notion that some extra standard should apply to me because of the content of what I believe. One more thing, I don't need to "find any support" because I did what I set out to do, which was to express how I felt and to respect that other people are free to love it or hate it as they see fit. I would defend your right to do the same, in fact. It is only that you presume to tell me how I should express myself and what I should say and don't seem to see anything wrong with your actions that I object to, and rightfully so.
Also remember that talking about moderation is always off topic.
Just as soon as there is another way other than follow-up posts to critique the moderators, I'll use it. In the meanwhile, I accept that valuable discussion can occur where you least expect it, including those posts that you might be quick to dismiss. Therefore I think it's best to evaluate each on a case-by-case basis, which is after all why we have human moderators who are expected to use their judgment.
I don't actually think that if the majority of people thought about it they would disagree with the content of his post.
No one thinks women should be discriminated against but I do think that as a group that working women take more hours off than working men. Period.
So that means they work less hours. Less on the production side. Also as a group women make more of the buying decisions in a family than the men do. More on the consuming side.
Sounds like the post is just factually true.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
You should not have been modded down, but neither should you have been modded up in the first place. Women as net consumers? Because they bear children?
Of all the things to criticize about women, you chose the fact that they bear children? That is the most fucking important job in our society, pun intended. You should rethink your priorities, man.
Because vampire fiction is all homoerotic, bodice-rippers are hetero.
Avoiding inflammatory language and couching what you say in veils isn't being non-inflammatory. Writing everything in a reasonable fashion doesn't mean you're being reasonable, it just means you're trying to give the impression of reason whilst getting away with posting the same tired old nonsense. The glass ceiling is not a product of women working less. I don't deny that there may be women who want to work less, just as there may well be men who feel the same. That doesn't explain how comparing across people in the same positions, doing the same jobs with the same hours, we still find a massive inequality in pay rates (an average of 17%, in the UK at least).
I do a lot of my reading while I travel and while I have not bought any porn on my Kindle, I like the idea that I can read a Michael Savage, or Michael Moore book without advertising my politics. As a guy, there are books I automatically pass over in a book store because a pink cover markets them to women, and it would not do to have 'Skinny Bitches' fall out of my briefcase in a meeting. With an e-book, that shaming factor goes away. To me, the privacy and compact size make them worthwhile.
Why assume that the buyers are women? That sounds rather contrary to the higher proportions of men both in the tech industry and with technophile tendencies.
Let's be honest.
I'd be willing to bet that there are plenty of men buying ebook erotica -- mentally justifying it as "research material".
If you're a socially-awkward male geek, is it really that far of a leap to want to be ahead of the curve when you finally get a woman to talk to you? Yeah, book-learnin' will only get you so far, but it's still better than nothing and a heckuva lot easier to hide than mags or DVDs.
Of course, the irony is that the sellers of these e-books have an easier time tracking who is buying what book than with traditional bookstores (at least if you buy with cash).
"Once again it seems like 'porn is blazing a path to a new media format"
Again the myth that porn has decided the formatwars is called upon again.
"Many theories regarding why Sony's Betamax failed have arisen over the years. One of the more amusing (and false) is that Sony refused to allow pornographic material on their system. A quick perusal of the Betamax library reveals that adult entertainment was readily available. For example, Playboy Industries released their videos in a dual format, both Betamax and VHS, for most of the 1970s and 80s (and can be confirmed with a quick search through Ebay's adult section, or other used video markets). Second, the adult industry is too small to have any lasting impact on standards selection. According to Forbes.com, adult video income is approximately $1 billion. "The industry is tiny next to broadcast television ($32.3 billion in 1999), cable television ($45.5 billion), the newspaper business ($27.5 billion), Hollywood ($31 billion), even to professional and educational publishing ($14.8 billion). When one really examines the numbers, the porn industry--while a subject of fascination--is every bit as marginal as it seems at first glance." (Link - http://www.forbes.com/2001/05/25/0524porn.html )"
There, it should be over now.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
Sounds like the post is just factually true.
Except that what it is implying is that the 'glass ceiling' is imaginary, that gender-based discrimination does not exist. Even in our 'enlightened' society, where the role of women has been significantly balanced, it remains ignorant to say that women only get worse pay because they do not work such long hours. In addition, the number of women who do work long hours and do not spend excessive time on childcare is certainly not insignificant, nor (as parent^4 seems to think) worth dismissing.
Also, it seems to me that women are mentioned here purely for comic effect, not because Amazon sees them as more apt to consume.
You got modded flame-bait because... well, you WERE flame-bait. The only time that women take off more than men is when they give birth. Other than that, they work at least the exact same hours. I say at least, because there's a lot of perception that women just aren't as good as men.... and to disprove that convincingly requires overtime.
Here's what I would suggest: talk to top-flight women. Women who are Director level and above. See what they say about their working hours, and how much time they take off for children. You'll find that a lot actually don't have children for precisely the reason that it would hamper their career.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
You should not have been modded down, but neither should you have been modded up in the first place. Women as net consumers? Because they bear children? Of all the things to criticize about women, you chose the fact that they bear children? That is the most fucking important job in our society, pun intended. You should rethink your priorities, man.
Why so angry? A corporation does not care WHY they are net consumers. It could be a good reason like the one you cite, or it could be a horrible reason, it makes no difference to e-book sales figures. "Net consumers" isn't an insult, or at least it was not intended to be. The differences between the sexes create business realities that successful businesses understand because they know their market and try to give their customers what they want. If I said that most porno sites that offer pictures and videos cater to men, would you get upset? No? Then what's wrong with what I said about women?
Other industries do this too. The real estate market and increasingly the automobile dealers are also beginning to cater to women because women are increasingly making the buying decisions for those two things. They don't do it because "women bear children" or because they are sexist, they do it because it results in better sales. I really think your venom is misplaced.
Oh, damn, I hope they don't kill the DRM-free side of the store.
Its not so much that this line is sexist, but rather that is just plain wrong. Raising children is the most important task of society. Maybe you could go with something like "women suck at raising kids." At least that might be a valid point. What you've said here is just totally nuts: it sounds like you are saying that having kids is somehow doing something irrelevant and unimportant.
I mean, really this line is completely off-topic. The first line of your OP is on topic, and the rest is off-topic, slightly sexist, but most importantly, irrational. Women aren't net consumers any more than your liver is a net consumer.
"No one thinks women should be discriminated against but I do think that as a group that working women take more hours off than working men. Period."
If you don't count time off die to child birth, that discrepancy almost completely vanishes. If you also take into account that men generally make more money for the same work, the notion that women take more time off starts looking like a self fulfilling prophecy (ie. given the choice between a family losing $x when a woman takes the day off or losing $1.5x whena man takes the day off, the most rational choice is clearly for the woman to take the day off), not to mention that there is a cultural norm that mothers are expected to take time off to deal with children (meaning that schools are more likely to call mothers in an emergency than fathers, and that employers are far more likely to permit time off to deal with children for mothers than fathers). Even assuming that your statement of "fact" really is, there are some very clear factors making it far more likely than the alternative which, frankly, have almost nothing to do with the quality or quantity of work done by women and everything to do with social norms and economic conditions.
"So that means they work less hours. Less on the production side. Also as a group women make more of the buying decisions in a family than the men do. More on the consuming side."
I doubt this very much. I work in retail, and while I certainly see women buying more items, I also men buying more expensive items... VASTLY more expensive.
"Sounds like the post is just factually true."
No, it sounds like the post is stating a common and highly controversial assumption that is factually ambiguous but reinforces what many people already believe subconsciously and is possibly a major factor in making or keeping it true. It is rationalization for sexism, not a valid explanation in its own right.
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
During the 1960s, it was fairly common to see the occasional pin-up picture emerging from the high-speed chain printers in university computing centers.
Programs that printed the correct carriage control character in the first column... was it a plus sign?.... could overprint multiple lines and get a reasonable grey scale, but of course the page was still only 132 pixels wide, and there was quite a lot of whitespace separating adjacent pixels.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
What is "Erotica" and "Dark Fantasy" supposed to mean? Why can't you use terminology that everybody in this forum would understand - "Softcore" and "Ebony"?
Don't forget, "the speed of business" is nearly synonymous with "thinking only in the short-term."
And, hey!, my liver *IS* a net consumer, you insensitive clod!!
Please moderators, don't be so trigger-happy. When I wrote that post, it was about as inoffensive and non-inflammatory as I knew how to write it. It's what I believe and I know that a lot of people won't like it, so I tried hard to take a neutral tone and I tried to make it as non-Flamebait as I could.
No matter how you dress up a turd, it still smells like shit.
You can't take the sky from me...
Seems like buying books for cash is more anonymous than leaving an e-commerce trail.
BTW third trashy paranormal romance book read on my Kindle. Just told someone I am reading Dickens, LOL!!! I love this!
12:32 PM Mar 3rd from twitterrific
You can't take the sky from me...
Fictionwise's own lists of Best Sellers/HIghest Rated titles tells a different story.
Entries in Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series rank 1st, 2nd, 3d, and 4th as best sellers the past six month.
Joe Halderman's "The Accidental Time Machine," came in fifth.
No erotica title made it into the top 25.
You will find YA "Twilight" on the Fictionwise "Dark Fantasy" shelf.
Which means were looking at more blogger BS on the front page of Slashdot.
As a counterpoint, women buy more cars than men, in the US midwest at least, and dealership mailings aimed at women have a higher response rate than those aimed at men.
The guys read the info, say "neat", then trash the mailing. The women look at the pictures, say "pretty", then purchase.
Porn foes onto all type of media, regarldess of success. Laser disk had porn, Betamax had porn. yet they still didn't become the hits their counter parts did.
eBooks is becoming how now because the kindle is in the news and on a lot of peoples minds.
Yes, I'm sure there wouldn't be DVDs and the Internet of porn never went to them.
Remember kids, hindsight is a lying bastard. It makes you think there are connection that aren't there as is the main reason people fall into confirmation bias.
Stop It.
Really, soap operas and romantic novels have been porn for women for decades.
"No one thinks women should be discriminated against but I do think that as a group that working women take more hours off than working men. Period."
well, at least your open minded to that facts. Period~
Strawman argument, return to GO. Do not collect 200 dollars.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
This is probably a redundant summary of all of the topics that have to do with thinking of the children: Don't let them onto the internet on their own, if you're uncertain about the appropriateness of anything on here.
(Disclaimer: I think of the children: I have a kid whom I don't want growing up in a fascist, orwellian panopticon world.)
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
Now, we can say, "The Kindle will becum sooo hot, it can be called "digitial kindling"... It offers, preplay, foreplay and replay, including, (butt not leased), swipes and pastes, and a washable surface, along with a tacked, tiled enter face relay...
For the daring, we offer an upgrade to excite the "awlfactory" and the "Ohhhhh" factor in the form of scintillating and scent elating emitters that will chemically diffuse the funk or fragrance of your choice. (Be mindful of your choices in confined, public, or transportation environs...)
(Batteries not included)"
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Listen you stupid jackass, Obsidian is the latest flash-in-the-pan buzzword-heavy gimmick that lets newbies chip one edge and pretend they know what they're doing, which is fine if you live right next to a FREAKIN' VOLCANO.
For those of us who prefer not to tempt the wrath of the LavaGod, and oh yeah -- maybe make FIRE, HAVE YA HEARD OF THAT YET, YOU WHEEL-LESS SLED-DRAGGING DORK -- we'll remain with a proven technology with Spark(TM)!
starring: anonymous coward. Looking forward to read ... not!
Right, that's just 3 or 4 days every lunar month. Piffle!
Right again—what kind of male chauvinist pig would count death against a woman? If there's a solid reason to take a day off from work, that's surely it.
Ah, but you raise so many questions. For example, do you know the difference between ambiguous and dubious? Or did you mean to say false? Well, since the belief is "subconscious", we aren't aware of having it, so I suppose it hardly matters.
Yes, I had a bad day, and I'm into sharing. And no, I'm not being nice to the girls. But you'll admit I have the wit to do it anonymously.
cry about it
Nice ANSI graphics! Great work.
Now, just let me install DOS 6.2's ANSI.SYS in my CONFIG.SYS, and surf to some other BBSes ... hmmm... what does "keyboard remapping" mean, and why does it say "FORMAT C:"?
Same trend with Keitai Manga in Japan, which is a subset of e-books.
It started with 60% to 70% of downloads being
1) downloaded at night
2) by women
3) erotic content
now it's grown to about a $300 million* a year industry and seems to be more diversified.
The model is typically that the first chapter is offered for free, and users are prompted to purchase if they wish to continue reading.
*http://www.soumu.go.jp/s-news/2008/080718_4.html
Porn is a big business. Lets face it, they've got a substantial and inexhaustible demand for their wares and low production costs due to the number of desperate slappers with serviceable tits.
I head, although this may be apocryphal, that porn has been the deciding factor in format wars in the past - porn went VHS, and that buried Betamax. Porn chose blu-ray (although most of the porn I have seen benefits from NOT being high definition...) and buried HD DVD.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
is that a posh way of saying 'p0rn'?
Ages ago I was reading one of the hitchhikers books, just released, in the train. Was completly lost in the book to the point that the conductor apparently had to call me several times and eventually touch my shoulder to get my attention. Much to the amusement of my fellow travelers.
After showing my ticket, the passenger across from me asked what I had been reading, I told him and turns out he had read the previous books as well but had not heard about the new one yet. We talked a little about the series (learned that there is a LP version as well that is different from the radio broadcast) and then parted ways as we arrived at the station.
This was before MP3's and kindles and what not. People have always been able to loose themselves in their own world and we survived just fine. Stop being an alarmist.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
If you write erotica and it's a hell of a bodice ripper with a nice story line, you may wind up not needing porn videos.
That is, except to watch them with one of the women who read your stuff.
Oh and these women aren't all DOGS, either. I know for a fact. I owe my marriage and three (well, one adopted) kids to doing this myself.
Hoo rah.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Has anyone looked at what fiction is available in ebook format? A lot of authors and publishers just don't provide digital format copies, and a lot of people are self-publishing online... which means there's a lot of under-edited, badly written stuff out there. For sale, not just freely available. Not to say that there isn't good, regular fiction as well, but it's not nearly so easy as buying a paperback and being able to more or less rely on it being half decent and at least containing no spelling errors. Also, the erotica writers who are any good often still have trouble getting published in RL, so a lot of them publish online. End result - a lot of the erotica ebooks available are better written, better edited, and more fun to read than their non-erotic cousins.
( . Y . )
No, when it's what you actually believe it's discussion. When you post it for the sole purpose of pissing off or offending other people with no regard for whether you actually believe it or not, it's Flamebait.
Nope. Flamebait includes stuff that the poster may actually believe, but that is written in an inflammatory or offensive way - comments than generate far more heat than light, so to speak. They tend to derail the conversations into flamewars. You're more than welcome to express controversial opinions, just word them so they aren't flamebait.
Also, I refuse to take on any additional burden of proof that someone who conforms to the majority would not be expected to deal with.
Ever heard the phrase "extraordinary clames require extraordinary proof"?
What he said wasn't particularly extraordinary, and in fact can be at least partially supported by anyone who cares to observe the society they live in.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
That doesn't explain how comparing across people in the same positions, doing the same jobs with the same hours, we still find a massive inequality in pay rates (an average of 17%, in the UK at least).
That is certainly a discrepancy but doesn't sound like it fits the description of a glass ceiling to me. A glass ceiling (as I see it) would be if, say, at $20k - $40k per year, gender numbers were roughly equal but above $40k per year men outnumbered women by some significant percentage. (Not saying this isn't the case, I'd be interested to see stats).
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Fair point - I wandered off point somewhat there. Haven't found any numbers purely giving salary divided by sex, but the Fawcett society gives the numbers for certain top positions (% women) as: * 9% of directors of the UK's top 100 companies * 19% of MPs in parliament * 7% of top police officers * 23% of civil service top management * 9% of editors of national newspapers * 18% of trade union general secretaries or equivalent I'd tend to discount the MPs, given that they're elected, but the others are reasonably indicative. The workforce as a whole is now reasonably balanced in that regard.
there is a cultural norm that mothers are expected to take time off to deal with children (meaning that schools are more likely to call mothers in an emergency than fathers, ....
Oh, bullshit -- there's no reason that parents can't DEMAND that the father be called first. What if he works five blocks from the school and the mother works twenty miles away? If, in that situation, my child was injured or died because of time spent calling the farther-away parent, you can be goddamned sure I'd own the school district and all its assets in short order. In any case, you could file a legal document with the school specifying the call order. It will be their responsibility to comply. It's just as stupid as people who demand to know your cell phone number because that's their preferred means of communication. I frequently refuse to give it out for that reason and tell them I'll call home when it's convenient for me to get the message off my land line.
My cell phone is useless at home. I tell people that and they still try to leave the first call there. Since I leave it in its charger, I usually don't hear it from a couple of rooms away. The reason I leave it in the charger is that the stupid asshole "designers" have determined that, if it can't check in with the mothership, they should "fix the problem" by having the phone aggressively attempt contact by trying, ever more frequently and at even greater power, thereby using the most battery power when it's least useful. Then, when I come out of the great wilderness and really need help, the cocksucking bastards have left me with a dead goddamned battery. Fuck the sons of bitches to the lowest pit of hell.