What We Talk About When We Talk About “Fifty Shades of Grey”
This may be sacrilege to say, but we can’t seem to muster any interest in reading the new, best-selling erotica novel that everyone’s talking about, Fifty Shades of Grey. After all, even the author admits that it’s not that good! For SM erotica, we’d rather stick with a classic like Story of O. Yeah, yeah, we get that Fifty Shades is “mommy porn” for grown women who wished that the Twilight novels were just a little dirtier (hi, we’re your target audience) but maybe we don’t want to read something that has garnered a reputation as mommy porn. That all said, what we are fascinated by are the kind of conversations that this new novel is inspiring:
- Katie Roiphe, writing in Newsweek magazine, claims that spanking (including this novel) is suddenly mainstream because women can’t handle all the equality and money and power in the workplace that is suddenly coming their way.
- The Frisky says that Roiphe understands neither feminism nor BDSM if she thinks that.
- A male reviewer at the New York Daily News says that the book “manages, miraculously, to be at once pornographic and deeply unappealing to men – it is a kind of pornography that attracts only women.” And this, he writes, “is exactly why this book matters.”
- The author, E.L. James, admits that the book is neither ground-breaking nor particularly good and that she’s shocked how well it’s doing.
- Okay, so this news blooper has absolutely nothing to do with Fifty Shades of Grey, but it has everything to do with spanking — a major theme of the novel — and how the subject turns so many adults (especially Fox News anchors) into giggly, awkward, embarrassed teens.
- Is the book worth the hype? The ladies at Jezebel find it “ridiculous” and complain that it contains way too many “OMG’s” for their liking.
- Apparently this book actually started out as Bella and Edward fan fiction. Does this mean that an erotica novel based on Star Trek — the original target of fan fiction writers — is coming soon?!
Figleaf, Zane is a prolific African-American erotica writer who has been writing for a while (10+ years)
She’s not new but the TV series is giving her more exposure
I have read all three of Fifty Shades and was totally and completely hooked from the begining. I’ve never ever been interested in BDSM, however after reading these books.. I could probably delve into a few kinky things. I was interested in the story and was sexually aroused at the writings. IT’S A SHAME THAT MEN WOULDN’T WANT TO READ WHAT WOMEN THINK IS SEXUALLY STIMULATING. Maybe they could learn a few things and not be so VANILLA !!! From: A woman married to a VANILLA… hoping to encourage hubby to explore something other than vanilla soon !!!
I was curious to see if you guys had read this — just b/c of all the hype. I think for professional reasons you have to! Report back.
On a semi-related note, while waiting for the second leg of a flight out of the Detroit airport there was a very young woman in a seat across from me reading a book called “The Sex Chronicles” by someone named Zane. And based on the cover it sounds like there either is or will be a TV series by the same name on Cinemax?
I got the impression from the cover that it too is meant primarily for women rather than men
Since I haven’t read either 50 Shades or Sex Chronicles I don’t know if they’re both part of a trend.
But you two might. 🙂
figleaf
So… I’m perfectly prepared to believe Fifty Shades of Grey is (are?) a) a best seller but also b) not very good.
If that New York Daily News writer is correct that it’s unquestionably porn that’s also unquestionably uninteresting to men that really would matter as it would directly contradict Rule #1 of the bogus Two Rules of Desire (That it’s somehow simultaneously inconceivable and intolerable for women to experience autonomous sexual arousal.)
The question, then, would be is it true that it’s pornographic but uninteresting to men? (Um, does this mean I’ll have to read it?)
Another point worth mentioning: since the cover uses an image of a disheveled necktie rather than a partially-naked woman, the book least partially passes Mathilde Madden and Kristina Lloyd’s “erotica for women” test.
figleaf