Despite the strong sales of the 50 Shades of Grey in the last year or so, there are detractors. One of them is Clare Phillipson of the UK and who director of the Wearshide Women in Need. She has read a portion of the first novel and describes it as “vile” and stopped reading it “in disgust.”

Therefore Philipson has marked November 5^th 2012 as the date which she organized for a book burning of ’50 Shades of Grey’ in order to raise awareness of abuse against women. In an interview with the BBC, Philipson noted: “I do not think I can put into words how vile I think this book is and how dangerous I think the idea is that you get a sophisticated but naive, young women and a much richer, abusive older man who beats her up and does some dreadful things to her sexually.”
The novel deals with an older man who starts an affair with a college student. BDSM is a pervasive theme in the novel and has even sparked an increase in sex toys sales as well as interest in bringing a touch of violence into the bedroom.

Philipson continues: “My main objection is that at a time when local authorities are making cuts to outreach and refuge services for women experiencing domestic violence, we have libraries wasting and grossly misusing public to buy a book which says: ‘domestic violence is sexy’.

Random house, the publisher of the trilogy has remarked simply that: “The sex scenes are entirely consensual.”

As we reported last week, 50 Shades of Gray recently became a bestseller in India.