Conservative radio talk show host Joe Walsh took a barbaric step in his Oct. 8 Twitter post by asking "If women are so outraged by Donald Trump's dirty talk, then who the hell bought the 80 million copies of Fifty Shades of Grey? Grow up.
Trump earlier outraged many by bragging about grabbing women by the "pussy" and later dismissed his comments as simply "locker room talk."
Enter E.L. James, author of Fifty Shades, the romantic-erotic fiction trilogy -- involving characters Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele -- that has sold more than 125 million copies worldwide.
In her response to Walsh's tweet, E.L. James posts: "The word 'pussy' does not appear in Fifty Shades of Grey. And it's fiction. You know. FICTION. #LearnTheDifference and #GrowUp."
Fiction?
Yes, Fifty Shades of Grey is "FICTION."
It is fiction that glamorizes and normalizes violence against women. Stalking. Intimidation. Social isolation. Humiliation. And sexual violence -- including Christian's use of anger, intimidation and alcohol to pressure and impair Anastasia's consent throughout the couple's sexual interactions.
And while women have "bought millions of copies" of Fifty Shades, what do they think about the narrative?
In focus groups involving college women ages 18 to 24 about the Fifty Shades relationship, women very clearly identified abuse throughout. Namely, women were highly disturbed by the abusive sexual interactions between Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, which align with and contribute to rape culture.
Were the findings from these focus groups with college women an anomaly?
Not quite.
In back-to-back presentations I made on abuse patterns in Fifty Shades of Grey at the campuses of University of Rochester and SUNY-Brockport this week, college students also raised alarm by the abuse in the Fifty Shades relationship, including noting clear parallels to rape scripts they observe on college campuses.
Fiction?
Sure.
But it is fiction that college students clearly recognize as glamorizing and normalizing violence against women. Just like "locker room talk."
Recognize the parallels. #GrowUp, E.L. James and Joe Walsh.
Links to Bonomi's relevant research
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23931257
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/jwh.2014.4782