On Monday, a Twitter Q&A was set up for Fifty Shades of Grey author, E.L. James’ fans to ask her anything they wanted using the hashtag #AskELJames. However, it quickly turned into a PR nightmare.
In what was meant to be an open space for fans of the trilogy to discuss her new book Grey, which is basically the same story written in Christian Grey’s point of view, it became a bashing session.
Twitter users hammered the author with questions about abuse, accusations of James being a poor writer and perpetuating the rape culture.
“#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,” one Twitter user wrote, while another wrote, “#AskELJames Is there a safe word we can use to get you to stop writing such drivel?”
"How do you feel knowing you've made your riches from convincing young impressionable girls that abuse is 'love'?" yet another person wrote.
Some even made light of the epic fail that is the #AskELJames Q&A with tweets like:
cover from EL James