A MIDDLESBROUGH man’s literary criticism went viral when he took the author of 50 Shades of Grey to task for ‘hating women’.
Teesside filmmaker Ian Robinson’s tweet to E L James was retweeted thousands of times yesterday (Monday, June 29).
The divisive author of erotic fiction trilogy 50 Shades invited Twitter users to ask her anything in a question and answer session that quickly went awry.
The hashtag #askELJames began trending yesterday as people bombarded the bestselling author with accusations of sexism, plagiarism and poor prose.
While many fans asked serious questions or leapt to the author’s defence, their efforts were overwhelmed by an onslaught of negativity.
Mr Robinson, director of Ian Robinson Pictures, was surprised to see his contribution to the discussion quickly make its way around the world.
The 39-year-old’s concise tweet said: “Which do you hate more, women or the English language?”.
His sentiments echoed concerns about the book’s portrayal of the relationship between its protagonists, Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.
Today, he said: “There are a lot of people asking about the abusive nature of the relationship.
“It isn’t consensual, she is portrayed as an innocent fool who obeys his demands because she thinks she can change him.
“Abuse charities have said this is classic domestic abuse and James has never responded.
“I don’t have any great insight, I just wrote a ten word quip which seemed to say what a lot of people think.
“I’d hope more people would listen to women who have suffered abuse who know more than I ever could.”
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