YA author's anti-lesbian,anti-women comments

[SuperLoudPoppingAction]

www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/17/robert-muchamore-apology-lesbian-comments-fifty-shades

Robert Muchamore says protesters against 50 shades of grey were 'ugly women with short hair who I assume were lesbians, and surely hadn’t had a penis anywhere near them in some considerable time' .
If he didn't agree with the protest, he should have explained why and not objectified women and demeaned lesbians.

twitter.com/WomanistNerd/status/566977186910179328

This is a tweet with the screencap of what was actually said.

He has form for being an attention-seeking caricature of blokey awfulness, so I was reluctant to give him more attention.

www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2011/oct/26/robert-muchamore-banned

That's him having a huff that a school for 7-year-olds and up didn't buy his books for their library.

The only reason I'm raising this publicly, and giving it more oxygen, is that one of the protesters was a 14-year-old girl, who now has to read that she looks as though she hasn't had enough penises near her for her to appear patriarchally-compliant.

This is so many kinds of wrong I don't know where to start.

But mainly, this guy's readership is mainly the boys who will already feel like those comments are maybe ok to make in school.
So it enables them to feel ok about commenting, and maybe about sexually assaulting their classmates, since, after all, normal girls must want to have penises near them so they don't get slated on facebook for looking like lesbians.

I'm sorry if I can't be more articulate. I'm trying to make points clearly but I'm really quite angry. My daughter is the same age and I'd hate for her to experience this kind of harassment. I'd also hate for boys and girls in her class to feel they can make those sorts of comments about her lesbian mother to her.

The other sad thing is that nobody called him a rapist. They were pointing at a poster with an image of Mr Grey and singing 'that is what a rapist looks like'. It's a perfectly valid political point.

You can see the camera pan to the poster about 30 seconds into this video.

I've checked and the girl I mentioned isn't in the video, or else I wouldn't share it, I don't think.

I'm mainly sharing this in case anyone hears of this guy coming to a school near you - I really wouldn't want him making those sorts of comments near children and he doesn't seem to have a very good filter, judging from his twitter account.

While I don't agree with what he said, saying he "looks like a rapist" isn't going to help anything.

And I thought anyone could potentially be a rapist? Is there really a set image for "what they look like"?

RTFT

He's given donations to mixed gay groups though, hasn't he? Not women's groups, though it was women he attacked.

I believe so, yes. He dismissed the lesbian groups which were suggested to him out of hand. (The ones I saw, anyway)

TheGirl, I don't think DoThey is RM. He posts similar stuff on various FWR threads.

What a fun hobby. Because feminists (or, well, women) are never told we're putting our energy into the 'wrong' ventures or having our words misinterpreted otherwise, are we, so it's a refreshing perspective.

How there can be any argument about what this clearly ignorant man said I don't know. It's not even a feminist issue to be honest it's a humanitarian one. Any decent human being should find what he said ridiculous, superficial, venomous, and judgemental. That's for starters, as for the women if they were calling men who entered the cinema to see 50 Shades rapists then clearly that's ridiculous. But as the law would see it, if they have stated they did not say that, and if there is no evidence proving they did say that then the word of one witness does not trump a group of witnesses. As for Christian Gray being a rapist I haven't read the book, I did see the film and I don't believe he raped anyone in that. Anastasia didn't enjoy being flogged in one scene that I recall but she did agree to it. At no time did she say no apart from afterwards, when incidentally she tells him she will not "let him do that to her again." In other words, she gave her permission, then she decided she didn't like it, she never asked him to stop during the act. Not rape in my opinion and I am a feminist, a humanist and a woman. But he was a complete and utter knob end that no sane woman would ever want to go near surely. As for the whole is 50 Shades misogynistic thing, well, yes and no. The character Christian Gray is extremely misogynistic but it certainly doesn't make you anti-feminist if you enjoy BDSM with a consenting partner. You can be a feminist and still get your sexual rocks off as a sub you know, the two aren't anathema, and you can be male and sexually dominant without being a rapist or a raging misogynist.

No, it doesn't make you anti feminist if you enjoy BDSM.

However, almost every person who lives that lifestyle who has commented has said that 50SOG does NOT represent BDSM, it represents abuse and rape. Various organisations who support women in the aftermath of violent and abusive relationships also agree that it doesn't represent the lifestyle, but is a poorly written story about abuse and about the old boring trope of a how 'good woman' will change a violent abusive twatbadger.

Mmmmm agreed Puffins Mr Gray is a bit of a prick as I said. The fact this book was written by a woman does surprise me a little but then again often some of the most vile misogyny in our society comes from women. Another thing which is often forgotten and needs to be addressed if we are to make advances in equality. Women need to stop hating each other. To be honest if we all stood together in sisterhood men wouldn't be able to get away with much of the appalling behaviour that they do, especially in the Western world. Half the population is a considerable number when it comes to people power you know, social change, even social revolutions have been effectedby far less. The problem is apathy, most women don't feel sufficiently enraged to act or demand change. If we truly are to be seen as equal citizens in a social sense we are going to need to be the ones to demand that change. The question is are most of us prepared to do that, do we want to etc?

It isn't the fault of the author of 50SOG that the book is so popular. I'm sure there are thousands of better and worse written pieces of pornographic fanfic out there.

Why was it so popular is a better question, I think.

It's popular because obviously something in it appeals to women. Perhaps that thing is a desire to explore a submissive side or it could simply be a desire to escape into a world of fiction. As well a desire for a fictional character or situation doesn't necessarily mean you want that person or thing to happen in real life. But a lot of women do feel that 50 Shades has given them a window to talk about their desires. That in itself is no bad thing I suppose but when it gets appropriated by the mass misogynistic media, then it becomes damaging to perpetuate the untrue stereotype that most women secretly hanker after a Christian Gray type.

Yeah, fair comment.