E.L. James is a horrible person.

[shamanicshaymin]

James says she "freaks out when she hears people say that her book encourages domestic violence. "Nothing freaks me out more than people who say this is about domestic abuse," she says. "Bringing up my book in this context trivializes the issues, doing women who actually go through it a huge disservice. It also demonizes loads of women who enjoy this lifestyle, and ignores the many, many women who tell me they've found the books sexually empowering."

First, here's a lovely article of Jenny Trout calling out E.L. James on her bullshit. Then give her much, much applause.

Now it's my turn to respond to James. Those people you claim are "trivializing" abuse and doing a "huge disservice" to abuse victims? They are the same people that you claim to be defending. So it's you who are trivializing abuse victims, by saying that their own real life stories are "trivializing" other people who have gone through the same thing they did. Also? Don't talk about how criticism of your writing "demonizes" people who are into BDSM, when you've explicitly written in your own shitty trilogy that they're only into BDSM because they've had a tortured childhood and therefore grew up with "abnormal sexual tastes."

Good luck telling her this on Twitter though, 'cause she'll block at the first negative character. Abuse victims speaking up about their experiences with their own Christian Grey are "trolls" and "witches."

I think I know why E.L. James rarely gives interviews or public appearances. She's afraid of being called out on her own bullshit before the entire world.

Yeeeeeeeah... a little too late for that. It's just a matter of time before the rest of the world learns about it. Eventually, when copies of her books aren't being used as toilet paper for abuse charities, the rest will be buried in the same pit as the cartridges for E.T. on Atari, never to be spoken about again.

I'd make a comment about how E.L. James and David Hopkins should be in the same room together, but I'm not that cruel, not even to E.L. James. At least I don't romanticize the shit out of Hopkins like he already does himself.

Comments

[sarajayechan]

I just think she needs to admit that it's an honest to God abusive relationship and not just BDSM. Christian Grey isn't just mean to Ana in the bedroom, he treats her like shit all the time. What Ana is going through IS domestic abuse, plain and simple.

I mean, I get that the book is marketed towards women who enjoy trashy fantasies and steamy romances, but E.L. James needs to realize that people outside that demographic aren't gonna view the story as a steamy fantasy. They're gonna see it as a twisted tale of a man dominating a woman because of a tacked-on Freudian Excuse.

[valkyriur]

I think that's the problem in itself. E.L. James herself doesn't even want to acknowledge that what she's written is a trash fantasy that needs to be viewed as such.

[valkyriur]

She's too trapped in her own fantasy world. More than half of the stuff that happens to her character is abuse and not BDSM because there is no consent, and I'm not just talking about the sex parts. Every BDSM participant I've talked to agrees that this book is clearly portraying an abusive relationship and not a BDSM one.

Fifty Things Wrong with Fifty Shades of Gray

The Philapdelphia Incident - a real life 50 Shades incident.