Look at the top of our site – to the right of our logo.
Now back to me.
Now look to the right, above the radio, and down, below the content.
Now back to me.
If you’re on this page, then what you’re seeing in those places is not an ad. Nope, in fact, you will not be seeing any Google Ads on this page, or on many of BUST.com’s pages that link to this story, or mention this story. That’s because, apparently, Google seems to think that if you are using the word “slut,” then you are a bad, bad, dirty website. You are presenting what Google considers to be adult content, and Google doesn’t like that. In other words, if you’re using the word “slut,” Google thinks you’re a slut.
Google won’t place ads on what it considers to be adult content. So if it catches you using “sexy” words, well, that is going to be put you right into the category of material that Google deems to be” too sensitive for our advertisers.”
We aren’t the only ones who have run afoul of Google’s Ad Sense policies while discussing certain feminist subjects, including slut-shaming. Someone else with a site related to medical issues was also locked out of the Ad Sense lovenest. Her site may have been explicit – literally – while describing certain medical conditions. But should that really be considered sensitive content?
There is, unfortunately, no way to tell Google to, maybe, at least show some ads for adult websites when it thinks we’re being too grownup for our own good, or allow us to flag this content in some way so that AdSense won’t be agitated.
Until that time, enjoy the white space, folks. We’ll miss the revenue we would have received while these posts were up, but we still have ads running on all of our non-slutty pages.
