Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders, a Democratic candidate for president of the United States, can’t seem to figure out how to get himself out from under the controversy he generated by the discovery of an essay he wrote in 1972 that describes women’s rape fantasies.

Here’s his latest “explanation”:

Longshot Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, dealing with the blowback over an unusual essay published 40 years ago about rape fantasies, clumsily backed away from the controversial piece Sunday, comparing it to the erotic novel “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

“This is a piece of fiction that I wrote in 1972, I think,” the Vermont senator said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about a bizarre essay about rape he penned in an alternative newspaper.

“That was 43 years ago. It was very poorly written and if you read it, what it was dealing with was gender stereotypes, why some men like to oppress women, why other women like to be submissive, you know, something like ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’” Sanders said.

In the essay, titled “Man and Woman” and published in the “Vermont Freeman,” Sanders describes a woman having sex while she fantasizes about being raped by three men simultaneously.

The bizarre story also claims that a man’s “typical fantasy” is having a woman “tied up” and “abused.”

“Have you looked at the Stag, Man, Hero, Tough magazines on the shelf of your local bookstores?” Sander wrote in the essay. “Do you know why the newspapers with articles like ‘Girl, 12, raped by 14 men’ sell so well? To what in us are they appealing?”