UPDATE- We started a petition- please sign and share HERE
You might know the name EL James from the infamous Fifty Shades literary trilogy. Published between 2011 and 2017, the erotically charged novels came under significant criticism for poor writing, troubling feminist issues, glamourising abusive relationships, and just generally being a bit rubbish (sorry, not sorry).
Fast forward a few years and James is back with another offering that has stirred up a similar amount of controversy. Entitled “The Mister”, it has received reviews such as “excruciating”, “books and sex can be this bad”, “ghastly”, and “a mess” by respected literary critics.
No one was expecting a masterpiece from this mind bogglingly popular Queen of Smut, but this novel has plunged to new depths.
The storyline is as follows.
Alessia is a 23 year old Albanian woman. A piano prodigy and chess player who attended university in Albania with the desire to become an English teacher. She works in the UK as a cleaner in an aristocratic home after being kidnapped and then trafficked into the country to work as a sex slave.
She manages to escape but faces violent pressure from her father to marry her fiance and be a “traditional Albanian wife” as well as being persecuted and attacked, until her knight in shining armour comes along to save her. Maxim Trevelyan is rich, good looking, and a total playboy. He sweeps her off her feet and ditches his lifestyle of sleeping with “hot, skinny women” for “a woman dressed in a nylon housecoat”.
Despite her apparent high level of education, she refers to smartphones as “clever phones” and speaks in a painful attempt at depicting broken English. She has also apparently never seen the sea before, and only knows about American culture because her parents had Netflix.
All Albanian men in the book are depicted as Neanderthal thugs who are all involved in drugs, human trafficking, and kidnapping.
There are several things that really piss me off with this depiction. Firstly, human trafficking is a serious issue and absolutely should not be used or connected in any way with the plot of a smutty sex book. The trafficking of women for sex is not something that should be glamourised, monetised, or used as a plot line unless that plot is to talk about how awful it is in every single way. The Authors use of this very real issue that affects thousands of young women every day, is arrogant and disrespectful in every single way.
Secondly, the festishisation of Albanian women as meek, nubile, ignorant and naive does a disservice to millions of Albanians worldwide. Albanian women are none of these things.
Whilst sure some may display a trait or two as human beings, my impression is that they are tough, resilient, kind, and strong. Those that do end up as victims of violence, trafficking, and abuse do so because of those that attack them, not because they are weak or naive.
Creating and then perpetuating a stereotype that Albanian women are all virgins that want to clean and obey is horrifically harmful and reinforces the obstacles that thousands face every single day. In a country that is ruled by patriarchy, some women still need to ask permission to go out, but many are fighting and struggling every day to be treated equally and respected in the eyes of society.
Lastly, I take a bit issue with someone with no interest in or connection to Albania, perpetuating an existing hollywood stereotype that has caused untold damage to the country. Yes, Albania has problems with trafficking, drugs, and women’s rights, but that does not give unimaginative writers the right to use it as a go-to country for perpetrators.
A number of films have portrayed Albania and Albanians in a negative way, leading to long reaching and lasting negative opinions that have been difficult to shake. As a journalist I believe it is important to report on these issues in a factual way, I cannot support using them as storylines for a profit that will never benefit a single Albanian person.
I would love to see EL James make a sizeable donation to some of the country’s severely underfunded human trafficking charities. Every day, Albanian women are being coerced, exploited, and abused in the most horrific ways and there is little funding to prevent it or to help them if they get away. Money needs to be invested in communities to educate women of the risks, as well as their families- many of which will disown them if the women ever want to return because they think their honour has been ruined. Money also needs to be invested in centres where women can recover, where they can receive education and training, as well as much needed counselling and medical treatment to recover from the trauma they have suffered.
Considering her $150 million fortune that is only set to increase from this later book, I don’t think a donation is out of the question, do you?
Follow The Balkanista!
