Just when you think election news can’t get any more ridiculous, 50 Shades of Grey has been brought into the picture. Scottie Nell Hughes, a Donald Trump supporter, has blamed the novel, the movie Magic Mike and other similar media for Trump’s completely inappropriate comments in a recently leaked video from 11 years ago, in which he described using his fame as an excuse to grab women “by the pussy.”
Cosmopolitan reports on the clip from a CNN segment, where Hughes claims that media like this have created a culture which makes it acceptable for men to speak the way Trump and Billy Bush did in the video. She says that because nobody else was on the bus, and because they were only talking but not acting, that the situation was essentially harmless—never mind that Trump was referring to times in the past when he allegedly did engage in this type of behavior.
For those, like Hughes, who evidently have no idea what they’re talking about, allow us to make one thing perfectly clear: it does not matter how famous, rich, or pretty you may (or may not) be. Touching anyone without their permission is sexual assault, and your celebrity status does not excuse you. Works of fiction and entertainment do not excuse you (Also? Not a single book or movie she mentioned did not exist 11 years ago).
Hughes went on to turn the tables on Clinton, saying that she does not stand up for other women and that illegal immigrants have caused more harm to women than sexual assault has.
Ana Navarro, a GOP consultant, blasted Hughes, calling her comments “50 shades of crazy” for comparing the presidential race to an erotic novel.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Joe Walsh, a conservative radio host, also brought 50 Shades of Grey into play.
If women are so outraged by Trump’s dirty talk, then who the hell bought the 80 million copies of “Fifty Shades Of Grey?”
Grow up.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) October 8, 2016
The Twitterverse did not disappoint as far as responses go.
. @WalshFreedom people who know the difference between bad writing and consent pic.twitter.com/8SeGDjDHRa
— Leilani Dowding (@leilanidowding) October 9, 2016
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@WalshFreedom Yeah! And if people don’t want to be horribly murdered, who the hell bought all those Stephen King books?
— Savage Werewombat (@UrsulaV) October 9, 2016
@WalshFreedom Surely you are not saying women who enjoy consensual sex give up their right to object to sexual assault. Or maybe you are.
— Alison Cassady (@ALCassady) October 9, 2016
Maybe one of these days, we can all learn to think before we speak.