Legal News

The bestselling book Fifty Shades of Grey has been in news for some wrong reasons too with domestic violence campaigners planning to burn copies on a bonfire because they claim that it celebrates abuse.

The themes of the book has been accused of sadomasochism which the campaigners fear would create a new generation of violent men. The author of the trilogy is by E.L.James.

Clare Phillipson, director of Women in Need in Sunderland, has launched a campaign titled Fifty Shades of Abuse which aims to stage a mass burning of the books.

The charity has placed wheelie bins outside its head office for people to place copies of Fifty Shades in before the books will be burned in a huge bonfire on November 5.

Miss Phillipson has dismissed suggestions that a book bonfire has echoes of fascism.

She said the culture was shaped by fiction. This series of books were a passport for abusive men thinking their actions of abusing women is justified.

She added that the charity was planning to do could be interpreted as having fascist overtones. She said she was not a Nazi but the dangerous fiction needed to be turned to ashes.

The manipulation exercised in Nazi Germany in the 1930s was an example of the power of propaganda. They voted for Hitler who fooled them into believing he was the right man to lead a country.

She said she was not a moral crusader trying to lead a campaign against erotica. Fifty Shades was a classic tale of abuse.

During the infamous book burnings in Nazi Germany, 'un-German' novels that did not complement the values of the country under Hitler’s fascist rule were destroyed.

Up to 25,000 books were burned by the Main Office for Press and Propaganda of the German Student Association on May 10, 1933.

Miss Phillipson has been working with abused women and violent men for more than 30 years and thinks the popularity of Fifty Shades was 'a step back' in society.

She added it had to be pondered what would be the impact, the popularity of this book was going to have on the next generation of young men and women who were maturing sexually.

A teenager reading the book could misconstrue in thinking love was about healing a psychopath, or being forced into a confidentiality contract on the first date, or training in the gym because their sex lives were going to be so violent their bodies need to be toughened. It’s vile, disgusting and dangerous she said.

Fifty Shades of Grey has sold more than 5.3million copies in Britain, making it the best-selling book in the UK since records began. And more than 40m copies of the trilogy have been sold worldwide.

A spokesperson for its publishers Random House said 'The Fifty Shades trilogy was a work of romantic fiction. The sex scenes in the book were entirely consensual with the woman being a willing participant.