When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.
Originally created as Twilight fan fiction, and named The Snow Queen’s Ice Dragon, The Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy is without a doubt a huge phenomenon. It is currently the fastest selling paperback of all time, and has sparked a classical compilation album as well as a movie deal. However is this book a representation of female sexual liberation? Or is it just ‘mommy porn’?
In recent months
there has been something of an uprising against the series by female, Christian
bloggers. These women demand the books are sinful, twisted and even dangerous.
Christian blogger and professor Mary Kassian writes that ‘the relationship
between a man and wife is to mirror Christ’s relationship to His Bride’ and
that "Christ is not into domination, control, abuse, and humiliation.’ She
also speaks out against the submissive role of the novel’s protagonist: ‘the
Lord doesn’t want His daughters to be wilting, weak-willed, wimpy women who
welcome and enjoy abuse.’
However not all
women have had negative reactions to the series. The strong themes of sexual
abuse, BDSM and domination have intrigued readers. In an interview with The
Telegraph Fifty Shades of Grey Author, E L James remarked how she receives
hundreds of emails from women thanking her. They declare she ‘saved their
marriage’ and even that her novels ‘helped them to deal with their own sexual
abuse.’ Despite being found in the erotic fiction section of Waterstones, James
herself says she does not consider the book to be erotic fiction, instead she
insists, ‘It is a passionate story of love.’
Despite the
primary demographic of the series being inherently female, James also recounts
how men email her explaining how they too “devoured” her books, mostly at the insistence
of their other halves. However in a recent GQ article, the men’s magazine
remarked that ‘The book…is a crudely written work of clichéd erotica, based on
a piece of Twilight fan fiction, by a 48-year-old mother of two from west
London. And it's turning on your girlfriend - and your girlfriend's girlfriends
- more than you do... Gentlemen, meet the competition.’
So is the trilogy a
passing phase? It seems not! Considering it is now being offered as the subject
of a course at American University it appears the franchise will be sticking
around for some time. Sex educator and AU professor Stef Woods will teach
'Contemporary American Culture: The 50 Shades Trilogy,' to 25 students
beginning in January a course that admittedly seems bizarre and useless yet is successfully turning
contemporary pop culture into academia. It’s easy to appreciate the themes that
will most likely arise in this course; domestic abuse, objectivity and female
sexuality. According to Ms Woods in the Daily Mail ‘
The class already has a waiting list full of senior honor
students, and at least 22 are female and are enrolled in the school or
communications or are studying sexuality.’ Even the haters of the trilogy will
be impressed by the fact 'students will also be asked to rewrite one of the
introductory chapters, before Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey consummate
their relationship, with an aim to improving it.' Ouch! Don’t worry James, just
apply some Aloe Vera and cold water to that burn and it’ll clear right up.
It’s clear to see
everyone has their own opinion on the Fifty Shades franchise. I could list hundreds of reasons for and
against but I personally believe that despite the franchise being horrendously
written it does exactly what it was created to do, escapism. Books are there to
distract you from your own monotonous life and the trilogy does that. It
distracts us in the form of enjoyment and even in hate. We can whine and moan
about the book so we don’t whine and moan about our lives. Or we can celebrate
the fact that at the very least it’s distracting and really, it shouldn’t
matter what you read, it should matter if you read.
Even if the book is utter
rubbish.
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