This is just a quick post to provide a link to an article in the UK Guardian in response to Fifty Shades of Grey by a woman who has recently published a book on the subject of her BDSM lifestyle.
I think that it makes for good reading and provides some balance to the view of BDSM created by Fifty Shades of Grey.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/25/fifty-shades-submissive-sophie-morgan
John.
Ok, it’s time to talk about Fifty Shades of Grey.
Note: this post talks about BDSM and actual experiences of this fantasy.
If you are not comfortable reading about these concepts then please don’t continue reading this post.
I have stayed away from this topic since Fifty Shades exploded into popular culture because I haven’t been clear in my head about how I feel about the books and their portrayal of BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism). Last night though I had a conversation with a friend that set it all in perspective for me.
As with any work of fiction there will be people who love Fifty shades, people who hate it, and people who just don’t care much.
What has become clear to me though is that regardless of Fifty Shades merit (be that literary quality, BDSM accuracy, psychological etc) it has tapped into something profound in the psychology of many women. A book doesn’t need to be great, or even good to inspire people, get them thinking, and open new doors for them. Lets face it, no-one is actually going to live out the story of Fifty Shades in real life (if for no other reason than young self-made billionaires are hard to come by and are pretty hotly contested property).
But this is the point. Fifty Shades, like all erotica, is about fantasy and what it inspires in you, not about slavish re-creation.