These stupid women are doing feminism no favours at all.

[solidgoldbrass]

Tired of explaining that feminists are not spiteful, humourless, ignorant bullies? Unfortunately we're going to have to do a bit more of it.

No one who advocates book burning can ever expect to be treated with any respect. It's never a good idea. It just shows you up as a historically ignorant, idiotic control freak.

I haven't read the book, does it portray sexual violence with a young woman romantically?

Even if it's only an interpretation of the story line, could that interpretation be made?

AgentZigzag. Yes. As does Jayne Eyre. It's a stupid, atrociously-written book and I have no problem with people condemning it either for the shitty writing or its theme that all women are silly bimbos who want a Big Strong Millionaire to fist them up the arse.

But book burning is a different matter. There are already absolutely shitloads of powerful, witty, intelligent deconstructions of 50 Shades all over the internet as well as loads of parodies of it, calling for it to be burned is just completely wrong.

I haven't and won't read the book but from what I've heard it might be fun to burn a few copies. I think it's just a symbolic protest, not calling for censorship.

Historically book burning has been an attempt to silence and to control. The Nazis burnt books, the Catholic church has burnt books. There is no reason for this book to be ritualistically burnt.

Despise it by all means, but use words against the words that offend you.

Bad move ladies.

Why do we have to burn it and not just stick it in the bin/ignore it/use it as a door stop?

Oh god, I'm gonna have to buy it aren't I?

I'm a feminist. I've never even thought of burning any book. and I have read 120 Days of Sodom and Mills and Boon.

Is that a prerequisite now?

Booked burning is never a great idea but perhaps she could organise a mass arse wiping with said book?

Oooh look at me. I'm a great big uber feminist. Or something.

I read the thread title and assumed you were going to name some posters

I think if you were saying similar about Jayne Eyre, you'd be saying it from a rose tinted view of 'they were contemporary accepted ideas at the time'.

I can't stand all the flowery bollocks those kind of books spout, I mean Wuthering Heights? WTF? I was looking for the punchline that'd clearly been overlooked.

But yes, book burning is very...Spanish Inquisition-like isn't it?

But I don't think that's why they're saying it.

It's illustrative of the measure of feeling behind what they're saying, that they feel so strongly about the subject that they want do something going against everything they believe in.

It's like they find it so outrageous they want to wipe the fact that lots of women find this crap entertaining from their memory.

I thought MNers had already decided to stick copies in the paper recycling bins.

Am very tempted to put that link on Facebook though, just to piss off all the people who have spammed my newsfeed with I heart Christian Grey nonsense since the book came out.

What do local council guidelines say about burning kindles?

I'm sure there's some sort of air pollution rule?

I'm going to have to read it now.

'Why do we have to burn it and not just stick it in the bin/ignore it/use it as a door stop?'

Or just not buy it?

You've got a copy haven't you Starlight?

Ive had people all over my Facebook news feed raving about Fifty Shades.
going "havent you read it?" When i answered with a post saying that erotic fiction is nothing new and that i was reading the Black Lace books back in the 90s the thread went silent and i got no likes. Not bovvered.
But a couple of months ago in our local Tesco there were teenage boys buying Fifty Shades. I hope to God that they who read it dont think its a normal way to treat young women.

Not yet!

But I'm very slow at bandwagons or early adoption, or whatever. I've not even seen any olympics yet!

Just to clarify from what ive read about Fifty Shades on blogs and threads i dont class it as erotic fiction. I havent read it and have no intention of doing so.
But i dont agree with burning it because in years to come our descendants should be able to see the mysogynistic crap that was being passed off as mainstream erotic fiction back in 2012.

Sure, but they don't need to see it a few million times!

We were house hunting very recently. Nearly every house we saw had a copy in the bedroom. I was really surprised how popular it is.

I think the craze will burn out and people who enjoyed it will soon enough think it is a load of twaddle. A bit like Most American sit-coms

I feel sorry for jobbing erotic fictions authors all over the world who must be thinking 'what's so special about that woman'.

People just cannot resist a buzz.

with you.

But you cannot compare 50 shades to Wuthering Heights. If women want to portray Heathcliff as some romantic hero, even now, well that is misguided.

Books should never be burned, that is censorship.

What women want...let them be the judge.

My point is that book burning is a horrible thing to do, and also the sort of thing that's more often been done to feminists than by them.

Mind you, there was an incident some 30 years ago where a group of feminists, in the name of stopping violence against women, launched a raid on a women-only SM club and put at least one of the women there in hospital...

The book is the biggest pile of shite I have ever read in my life.

But calling for book burning is way, way stoopider. And that's saying a lot.

The best thing I read about it was someone saying it "put the "b in anal"

I liked that - it was clever.

Burning books is not.