Bernie Sanders Defends Gang Rape Essay, Like ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’

Chuck Todd confronted Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT) about his recently surfaced 1972 essay about sex, gender, and rape fantasies on Sunday’s Meet the Press.

Sanders stated in his essay that men fantasize about abusing women being and a women fantasizing about “being raped by 3 men simultaneously.”

“It’s uncomfortable to read,” Todd said.

Sanders compared his work to modern erotica and said the essay was a “piece of fiction” from over 40 years ago that was “very poorly written.” But he also defended the substance of the rape essay as akin to the controversial book about female sexual submission, Fifty Shades of Grey.

“Look, this is a piece of fiction I wrote in 1972, I think. That was 43 years ago—it was very poorly written, “ Sanders said. “If you read it, what it was dealing with gender stereotypes. Why some men like to oppress women, why other women like to be submissive. You know, something like ‘Fifty Shades of Grey.’ Very poorly written 40 years ago.”

One excerpt from the Sanders essay reads, “A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused. A woman enjoys intercourse with her man — as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously.”

The rest of the essay suggests women have a hard time balancing “gentleness” with “dependency” and “subservience.

Sanders’ campaign on Thursday referred to his essay as a “dumb attempt at dark satire.”

Sanders defends his rape essay at 4:37 in the clip above.