Last week, it was announced that E.L. James, the author of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" novels, was going to have a Q&A on Twitter on Monday, June 29. While it was expected that some people would participate to critique James' controversial novels, things escalated quickly as Twitter users panned the abusive nature of the protagonists' relationship, the author's writing style, the fact that the novels are a darker version of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" books, and it got to a point that some even wondered if having an E.L. James Q&A on social media was a good idea.
James received a lot of backlash against her main characters' relationship, as many people deem it to be abusive instead of romantic. In the books, the male protagonist, Christian Grey, is described as a handsome and extremely wealthy man who likes to be in control of situations, to the point that he places a GPS on Ana's car to know her whereabouts, forces her to eat when she's not hungry, and is even taken to stalking her, among others. While Christian defends his actions to Ana as him just being protective of her, social media users called out the character as being overbearing and abusive.
Twitter user @50shadesisabuse wrote, "Is it ok for Christian to stalk, coerce, threaten and manipulate Ana because he's hot, or is also because he's rich?"
Ian Robinson questioned James, "Which do you hate more, women or the English language?" while @TrevDon wrote, "If I stalk a girl and GPS her car, does that mean that's true love?"
There were jokes about Meyer, as previously it was revealed that the "Fifty Shades" books originated from a "Twilight" fanfiction written by James.
@RachelCDailey asked the author if she saw that the relationship of "Twilight" protagonists Bella and Edward and thought, "hmm needs more abuse," while another asked if James planned to answer any of these questions or if she needs Meyer to host her own Q&A first.
Many also slammed James' writing style, with one asking her how Ana managed to graduate from university in the 21st century without an email address or a laptop, while one pointed out that eyebrows don't "widen in surprise," as written in her book.
Others remarked that James and her publicists may now be regretting their decision to go ahead with the Q&A, as one noted that whoever planned the session "has obviously never, ever met Twitter."
James chose to ignore most of the questions and ended the Q&A by thanking Twitter users "for an interesting hour."
