Down With This Sort Of Thing

It's safe to assume that author E.L. James is rolling in money. Her bondage-themed novels, in all those shades of grey, has been a best-seller.

Not up for the Man Booker prize, oddly enough, but she gave the public what it wanted.

Some of the public, however, doesn't want what she's written.

Wearside Women In Need does not find the novel erotic. The women's abuse shelter sees domestic violence within the pages, and they plan to bring attention to their assertion that Fifty Shades of Grey is less of a novel and more of a how-to book from the crimes of serial killer Fred West.

Plans are in the works to build a bonfire of Ms. James' books (we're assuming that doesn't include the digital version) in a display that has already started people talking.

So is the trilogy a depiction of activities staged by two consenting adults, or does it promote abuse of women?

The question is lost in the shelter's manner of protest.

To some, the idea of burning books suggests the heavy hand of the Nazis, who banned and burned any art that they deemed unsuitable. To others, it is a stark reminder of the bad old days in Ireland, when sexual repression led to the banning of several books.

Critics are decrying the notion of censorship as expressed by a bonfire of books. It demonstrates intolerance, they say.

Well, yes. That's what the shelter wants to demonstrate. Intolerance for domestic abuse, for violence against women, and when those who deal with abused women on a daily basis read Fifty Shades of Grey, that's what they see, glorified as romance.

So it's down with this sort of thing from Wearside Women In Need, while others fear a new round of mind control from authority figures.

The two sides aren't arguing the same point.