It all started with one naive publicist and their decision to get author EL James to do a live chat on Twitter. What came next was an hour more awkward than watching 50 Shades of Grey with your grandma.
Despite being dubbed the highest earning writer back in 2013 with $58 million and counting in her bank account, it seems the EL James, author of the highly popular erotic novel 50 Shades of Grey, has as much critics as she does fans.
As the Q&A session progressed, more and more people took to Twitter to #AskELJames about her preference towards misogyny, rape culture, and below average writing skills. Although she didn’t directly answer the questions that were asked, at the end of the session, James thanked everyone ”for an interesting hour.” And an interesting hour it was.
Below are our choices for the best questions asked during the chat. Warning: These tweets may cause feelings similar to that of engaging in BDSM. (Ouch!)
What do you dislike more, Independent strong woman or the English language? #AskELJames
— Trevor Donovan (@TrevDon) June 29, 2015
#AskELJames Do all these negative tweets sent to you seem abusive to you? I think it’s romantic enough to be turned into a novel!
— Stephan Krosecz (@Krosecz) June 29, 2015
#AskELJames How long do you intend to block, ignore and silence people with legitimate concerns that you’re romanticising abuse?
— 50 Shades is abuse (@50shadesabuse) June 29, 2015
#AskELJames have you considered a book which empowers women instead of encouraging the acceptance of abusive controlling male behaviour?
— Claire Moore (@cctheatreco) June 29, 2015
#AskELJames : how much can Christian grey lift? Can he do sick skateboard moves? When is he going to prison
— The Frenemy Online (@The_Frenemy) June 29, 2015
#AskELJames what’s it like telling millions of women it’s okay to be in an abusive relationship as long as he’s rich. Asking for a friend.
— matty (@haiIhvdra) June 29, 2015
#AskELJames are you aware that eyebrows can’t actually do this pic.twitter.com/5Fc6PI67ug
— lauren (@lburgundy) June 29, 2015
#AskELJames If your sons behaved like Christian Grey does towards women, would you be okay with that? If so, WHY?!
— Emma Tofi (@EmmaTofi) June 29, 2015
If I tracked your cell phone and followed you to a bar, but I said it was because I was worried about you, would that be okay? #AskELJames
— Snark Squad (@Snark_Squad) June 29, 2015
I’d rather #AskELJames‘s publicist why they thought this was going to be a good idea.
— Jenny Trout (@Jenny_Trout) June 29, 2015
Yikes! At least movie night with Grandma ends in a couple of hours. These tweets will exist longer than EL James herself.
Despite the live chat session being more interesting than the novel, it was also refreshing to see the public taking a stand against the message behind the unnecessarily popular trilogy. However, with a new movie set to release in theatres soon and an additional novel in the works, it seems that 50 Shades is about to get even more popular.
Guess James still gets the last laugh because, in the end, it’s still her that is sitting on her pile of millions. Well, at least you can celebrate your rise to Twitter fame with those favourites and retweets, folks.
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