One Shade of Grey?
My sister shared this image on her Facebook account, it made me laugh out loud, giggle and chuckle all at once, that was until I read all the comments.
The comments were mainly divided into 2 categories. One group was busy thrashing the Author E.L James for churning out ‘trash’ such as the 50 shades series and for successfully making millions off of it. The other group was busy thrashing the author of the meme for its feminist view.
Made me wonder, though! I am in no way trying to endorse the 50 shades series, I remember reading the books skipping pages after pages because there was nothing in them that deserved my time. I know I read it only because I hate not finishing a book/series that I started. Having said that, I must say that as a writer I sympathize with the author when ‘haters’ publicly thrash her work.
Yes, I agree it was not the best of literary works, yes, she still managed to make millions from it, yes, it was on the bestseller list. Well, if it was on the bestseller list, and managed to sell more than 4 million copies in less than 3 months, then maybe it resonated with a lot of people who prefer this genre of books. In such a case why not respect the author for that aspect and keep personal attacks on her writing capabilities away from the ‘review’? Maybe it is just me, but that’s how I feel!
Moving onto the second group of haters – the ones I never tire fighting with – the feminist haters! The ones who wait at the nook and corner of every social media platform only to pounce onto the first women centric post they see to classify it as “Feminist” or better yet “Feminazi” and start thrashing the post and the author of the post thereby starting a war of words between the supporters and detractors of Feminism!
Something I’ve noticed with these kind of people is that they, for whatever reason, need something to be constantly offended over.
If today, it is the 50 Shades Trilogy and the Twilight series. Tomorrow, it’ll be a different book/series/blog post/meme. Rinse, repeat.
What do you think? Are we going overboard critiquing others? Do people constantly need something to be offended over? Or am I just playing the devil’s advocate?
(Image Source: The Reader Nook)
Rashmi P. Menon
A Single Mother with an unbreakable passion to Live the Life! I am a Writer/Author by passion and an IT Project Manager by profession. I am also the voice of Artemis at In The Pantheon - a multi-author collaborative writing project. When not hunting as Artemis, I am busy querying agents and working on my multiple writing projects. Women Empowerment and Child Rights Advocate.
A Meeting With My Ex
19 Comments
Al Lane
Some people just need something, anything to rant about… Leave them to their deranged frothing, and enjoy the cartoon as it was meant. The internet is a great leveller, giving everyone with a keyboard the ability to comment within moments of any post… This is the downside to that! 🙂
The Great J
I agree with what you said that people need something rant about. They always look for something negative and turn it into a big issue.
MindandLifeMatters
Funny thing is there are people out there who can easily turn even the most positive posts into a big issue!
MindandLifeMatters
True that! I have noticed ranting in almost every picture that is shared online. All it requires is one person to start and the rest follow!
Thank you for reading.
evanyambu
give people dessert, lemons no matter how sweet or sour somethings may be, they will always be someone somewhere ready to pounce on it. Its life and critiques make it revolve
MindandLifeMatters
Very true! It’s impossible to please everyone. But what gets to me in all this is the number of people who are ready to pounce!
Megha Agrawal
Some people have lots of time and not much to do with their precious time. So they find them-self work of criticizing others.
MindandLifeMatters
Hahaha..Megha! That is true! Self employed to criticize 😀
Dr Meg Sorick
Isn’t amzing how people can rant on negatively, but people rarely make lenghty postiive comments? And sadly when one person starts something, it makes it easier for others to pile on. I agree with all the points you made in your post. E.L. James is laughing all the way to the bank. It’s not my cup of tea, but she made a huge success out of those books. It’s not like she tricked everyone into buying and reading them! 😀
MindandLifeMatters
Exactly my point! We rarely see anyone making lengthy positive comments on even the most positive posts!
Not my cup of tea either, but E.L. James sure knew what the selling point was!
Wandering Soul
Internationally, it may be E.L. James but in India its Chetan Bhagat, boss! And that man is women empowerment pro but read any of his recent books and you’ll wonder if its the same man.
We just want a scapegoat for our own inadequacies. How many of these haters have actually written a book ? I haven’t read any of her books and don’t intend to. But that’s my choice. I can’t start pulling her down just because I don’t like her books. And neither can I understand the terms ‘feminazi’ or such terms. That term is so derogatory. As if using the word nazi so loosely is okay. Someone who stands for women’s rights is called feminist. Ok, so then what about someone who is in favor of human rights ? Humanist? What about someone who believes in Animal Rights? Is he an Animalist? Is there something as men’s rights – menist? (shaking head at the ridiculousness of it all)
MindandLifeMatters
Well, I guess in the case of Chetan Bhagat, there are people who support him openly. I personally do not feel that is work is awesome, but it is not too bad either. Lately, it looks like his only idea of writing a book is to sell it for movie rights to Bollywood!
Yes there is a term ‘Meninist’ and there is also an organization called MRA (Men’s Rights Activists) who call themselves Meninists. So, I guess it would be OK to call to the extremists from this organization “Meninazi” …oh wait, Meninazi is not even a term…I wonder why!?!
Ancient Skies
People are always too critical of other people! One thought – if women were treated with respect and dignity we wouldn’t even have a need for terms like feminism. Thank you for this wonderful post.
MindandLifeMatters
I couldn’t agree with you more. If only…!
fictionalkevin
I’m glad for the emphasis on giving women respect. I’m also glad for any author who succeeds. I actually enjoy the occasional James Patterson, for instance, though he is pretty consistently dissed.
I think everyone, male or female, deserves to be treated with respect. Woman have challenges men never face. Men have challenges women never face. We all face disrespect, and we all have to do so because society doesn’t respect people.
MindandLifeMatters
That is very well put! Everyone deserves respect. If only people understood that!
Jenn
I think the meme is funny and I agree with you. I’m just not a romance novel fan so me reading and writing a review of those books would be pointless because I just don’t get it. Let the people who like that stuff have their fun.
MindandLifeMatters
I couldn’t agree more! Guess, leaving it as it is spoils the “fun” for a lot of people!
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