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Anyone read Fifty Shades of Grey?; What the heck gets peeps so INTO it?
Topic Started: Mar 22 2012, 10:37 PM (1,107 Views)
LAwoman
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So I read a similar story in today's LA Times (which isn't showing up online) about the bidding war over this steam eBook based on Twilight-inspired fanfic. http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/why-hollywood-hot-fifty-shades-grey-36457

I don't get it. I could see this being a guilty pleasure or something, maybe, if she's really good at writing smut. But I totally don't get why so many women are gaga over such a retro, with S&M themes slapped onto such otherwise cliched Harlequin tropes? (naive virgin sucked into weird sex with a billionaire? Really?) It's sort of embarrassing that the few women who have clawed their way into top exec positions in Hollywood are pushing something like this. But I haven't read it, so I was wondering if maybe it actually manages to be worth the hype, despite the unpromising premise? BTW, I do like the idea of fanfic finding a commercial market. I'm just weirded out that it's such cliched gender roles that are doing it..and hitting home with women.
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MPRN


I just finished the second book in the trilogy. I really think that the media is making this a bigger issue than it should be. It is an erotic love story. I love the story so far.
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snafu
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I'm glad you asked this! I'm a little late to this party but it still seems like this book is everywhere: Dr. Oz was talking about it, it was on 20/20, there are zillions of articles online about it.. and yet I can't figure out what makes it so special. I mean, maybe for people who haven't discovered how joy of smutty fanfic erotic novels are all that and a bag of chips, but I just don't see how.

Based on the hype I considered reading it but my biggest issue with erotic novels is their stereotypical (and antiquated) portrayal of women. Almost every one I've read is too much about S&M, etc and the women are treated horribly. I can't enjoy reading them because I find them so deplorable. I like erotica as much as the next girl and I love that as a society we're at a point where it's not as taboo. But in my opinion, that niche of published books has not realized that sexual expression goes beyond domination and submission. Personally, smut is better when it encompasses the values and rights women have fought so hard to obtain. And that's not to say this "mommy porn" craze of relinquishing control in the bedroom is not understandable. But not being "in charge" isn't the same as being treated like dirt. I'd say a man who shows respect to a woman is far hotter than one who asserts his dominance over her.

But to each their own. Apologies for my little rant. :P I'd love to know what people who have read it think of the book!
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LAwoman
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I really liked this commentary in the Huffington Post about the hype around it and the questions the media have been posing about what its popularity means.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/birute-regine/50-shades-of-grey_b_1465294.html

Quote:
 
At a time when women are coming into their own power, have more economic control over their lives, sometimes earn more than their husbands, for the first time compose more than half the workforce, and have an opportunity to change the domination game by claiming their power, some in the media are using this book to ask questions like, "Are you sure you want control? Isn't it sexy to be out of control?"

...

It's not just the questions that are being raised that bug me; it's also the questions that are not being raised. Why aren't we asking what's wrong with men that need to control, own, dominate, assault women? No mention of the other side of this game. I just read that domestic violence is up during the recession. So economic pressures force men to beat up their wife or girlfriend? What's that all about?

A domination culture obviously doesn't serve men either, as we see in Christian Grey, who described himself as, "fifty shades of fucked up." Men are under such enormous pressure to be dominant, king of the mountain, to be in control, to emulate strength. Christian takes this imperative to be in control to a perversion, formalized in his "room of pain." The domination game tells women that their pain is their pleasure, and for men, her pain is his pleasure. There's a bit of cross-wiring going on. Why isn't the media asking men, "Are you sure you want to hurt her?"
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Natalie
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I've just finished reading the entire series and I am wondering what sets this apart from other romance/erotic novels. It is well written, but

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I did find it kind of addictive, I just had to know how it ended but I don't think it is the type of book(s) that I would read over and over again.
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snafu
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Natalie
May 1 2012, 08:40 PM
I did find it kind of addictive, I just had to know how it ended but I don't think it is the type of book(s) that I would read over and over again.
I can understand that. It's actually the same way I felt when I went through my (very short) Twilight phase when the books came out. I got into them, was addicted, powered through but upon reflection it felt like a waste of time because the premise went against everything I believe in and what I think society should value. Now I take care not to feed into undeserving hype.
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Leave_the_ground
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snafu
May 1 2012, 07:37 PM
I'm glad you asked this! I'm a little late to this party but it still seems like this book is everywhere: Dr. Oz was talking about it, it was on 20/20, there are zillions of articles online about it.. and yet I can't figure out what makes it so special. I mean, maybe for people who haven't discovered how joy of smutty fanfic erotic novels are all that and a bag of chips, but I just don't see how.

Based on the hype I considered reading it but my biggest issue with erotic novels is their stereotypical (and antiquated) portrayal of women. Almost every one I've read is too much about S&M, etc and the women are treated horribly. I can't enjoy reading them because I find them so deplorable. I like erotica as much as the next girl and I love that as a society we're at a point where it's not as taboo. But in my opinion, that niche of published books has not realized that sexual expression goes beyond domination and submission. Personally, smut is better when it encompasses the values and rights women have fought so hard to obtain. And that's not to say this "mommy porn" craze of relinquishing control in the bedroom is not understandable. But not being "in charge" isn't the same as being treated like dirt. I'd say a man who shows respect to a woman is far hotter than one who asserts his dominance over her.

But to each their own. Apologies for my little rant. :P I'd love to know what people who have read it think of the book!
I have recently finished reading the series. When I first began it, I was hesitant to continue because like yourself, I couldn't endure reading about a woman being mistreated for a man's pleasure.
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There were a few instances where the submission was demeaning, IMO. For me that would have been the breaking point. I would have safe-worded my ass off. Overall, the submissive role play was tolerable.

I don't go out of my way to read BDSM. In fact, just the opposite. I've read it in certain fandoms and written well, it's enjoyable. But I've also read some really awful stories. I tend to read this genre with a pessimistic view, expecting it to go down the crapper in a heartbeat.

I know lots of women rely on the anonymity of the internet to indulge in reading such "risque" material. If that works for them and allows them to indulge a side of their personality that is typically hidden away, kudos to them. Frankly I don't give a damn what people think about what I'm reading. I usually proclaim it from the rooftops....ok, well maybe just Facebook and Twitter. :whistle Anywho, I'm an avid reader and I love to discuss anything I've read.

While this isn't the most well written series I've ever read, it's definitely worth reading.
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Leave_the_ground
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Natalie
May 1 2012, 08:40 PM
I've just finished reading the entire series and I am wondering what sets this apart from other romance/erotic novels. It is well written, but

Spoiler: click to toggle


I did find it kind of addictive, I just had to know how it ended but I don't think it is the type of book(s) that I would read over and over again.
Spoiler: click to toggle
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Lyrics from "Little Black Submarines" by The Black Keys
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LAwoman
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I have to say that this sounds like a much more interesting sex movie than the 50 Shades adaptation. I'm sure it won't be as steamy, but it has something interesting to look at in terms of what bizarre ideas can be commonplace about sex in the grand sweep of history. Given that Secretary, which Maggie Gillenhaal also starred in, was one of the best kinky sex films ever, I'm definitely going to check Hysteria out when it hits theaters.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-ca-indie-focus-20120506,0,3567789.story

Quote:
 
A polite comedy about a potentially rude subject,"Hysteria"takes its title from the medical condition diagnosed to women in Victorian England for any number of unrelated symptoms. As a treatment, doctors would stimulate a woman to orgasm, referred to as "manual massage to paroxysm," leading one beleaguered physician, essentially as a labor-saving device, to invent the vibrator.

...

"We knew the joke, the big joke, wasn't, 'He-he, vibrators' — it was really, 'Can you believe the idea of hysteria?'" Wexler said. "And the idea you'd have this young handsome doctor who could barely hold the hand of the woman he was courting in one scene then in the next scene he's in the office with his hand up a woman's skirt treating her, thinking it's like polishing furniture. To me that's what was always funny, the massive cultural denial, the delusion we could all be in."

For contemporary audiences, the disconnect between what the doctors think they are doing to their patients and what they are actually doing to their patients is startling — it's difficult to comprehend their blithe disregard for female pleasure or the sexual nature of their treatments.
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snafu
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@LAwoman I actually JUST heard about Hysteria today (went to see 21 Jump Street and read an article about it in the theatre magazine thingy). I think it looks amazing... though I'll probably be going alone because I have unfortunately closed-minded/conservative friends. I love that it explores the side of female sexuality that people are still afraid of and highlights societal discrepancies. The fact that movies like this are being made shows progress and that gives me warm fuzzies :p

I've never heard of Secretary. When did it come out?
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LAwoman
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Secretary came out about 10 years ago. It starred Maggie & James Spader in a kinky relationship where he spanks her. It's twisted and funny and kinda sad & pathetic at the end. Not the sort of movie I expected to like, but it's pretty good.
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