“Fifty Shades of Grey” author EL James took a beating that would make even Christian Grey blush on Monday, after a Twitter Q&A devolved into a group drubbing of the erotic-fiction author.
The Twitterati turned out in droves to take up the gauntlet put down by the hashtag #AskELJames, flaying the British writer with barbs of 140 characters or less.
“90210” alum Trevor Donovan got in a two-for-one shot at James, questioning both her writing ability and her opinion of women.
“What do you dislike more, Independent strong woman [sic] or the English language,” Donovan jabbed.
He also tossed in, “If I stalk a girl and GPS her car, does that mean it’s true love?”
What do you dislike more, Independent strong woman or the English language? #AskELJames
— Trevor Donovan (@TrevDon) June 29, 2015
Another Twitter uses posted a photo with the James line, “His eyebrows widen in surprise” with the question, “are you aware that eyebrows can’t actually do this.”
#AskELJames are you aware that eyebrows can’t actually do this pic.twitter.com/5Fc6PI67ug
— lauren (@lburgundy) June 29, 2015
Criticism of James’ writing ability was widespread, with one wiseacre weighing in, “after the success of ‘Grey,’ have you considered re-telling the story from the perspective of someone who can write.”
Other detractors played with the S&M theme of James’ work, with one Twitter user writing: “Is there a safe word which will stop you from writing anymore of this bollocks?”
On a more serious note, a number of people took James to task for the abusive relationship between her characters, with one pointedly asking, “how do you feel knowing that you have essentially invalidated the experiences of many abuse survivors around the world?”
Still another asked, “Would you say no to another Twitter Q&A? And if so, does that mean yes?”
Wow; there’s enough abuse there that James could probably whip up a quick sequel from the posts if she were so inclined.