'Fifty Shades Of Grey' Doesn't Excuse Donald Trump

By now, the Access Hollywood tape has caused mix reactions to Donald Trump's comments, as well as his presidential campaign. There are those who denounce his comments, and have no plans of voting for him on Nov. 8, those who are distancing themselves from his comments but will still vote for him (these are mostly Republican party leaders), and, somehow, those who don't think Trump's comments aren't that bad and continue to support him regardless. There's actually a meme going around invoking Fifty Shades of Grey and pointing out that "If American women are so outraged over Trump's use of naughty words, who in the hell bought 80 million copies of 50 Shades of Grey?" This particular argument misses the point, completely.

Those of us who are outraged over Trump's comments mostly aren't mad about the words that he said; we're mad about the context of them. Using "naughty" words really isn't that big of a deal, but saying that you could grab a woman by her genitals is a really big deal. Trump's quote implies that he wouldn't need the woman's consent to do this, and that's the most troubling part of it all.

Although Trump has dismissed the comments as "locker room talk," plenty of athletes have responded to say that no, this is not normal locker room talk.

On Monday, Scottie Nell Hughes, a Trump surrogate gave an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper and commentator Ana Navarro where she argued that popular culture like Fifty Shades Of Grey, Magic Mike, Playboy, and others contribute to a society that is to blame for lewd comments like Trump's. "Sex, unfortunately, sells," she said. But Trump's comments weren't just about sex. They were about sexual assault. And pop culture is not responsible for that.

The ridiculous blaming of the book even Fifty Shades author EL James to respond, tweeting, "The word 'p*ssy' does not appear in Fifty Shades of Grey. And it's fiction. You know. FICTION. #LearnTheDifference and #GrowUp @WalshFreedom."

Trying to blame one man's offensive choices and words on fictional works is one thing, but it's a completely different thing when that man is also running for president of the United States and then tries to tell us that his words back then didn't really matter and that we have more important issues to talk about. Yes, ISIS is important, but so is electing a leader who has the ability to deal with them and respect people as human beings.