That being said a lot of people have been asking for my opinion on Fifty Shades of Grey - EL James. I find when people ask for your opinion, they're actually asking you to agree with theirs. So I guess a lot of women have been reading the novel and asking me to gush over it with them. But I just can't.
I originally read Fifty Shades because a blogger that I have been reading for a few years was promoting it on her blog. Hers is one of the few blogs that I have found that talk about women's empowerment and sexuality, she's strong and independent and someone that I truly admire. So when I bought my own copy of Fifty Shades I was extremely disappointed. Not in the book, necessarily, but rather with the women who are reading it and have fallen so in love with its story.
Fifty Shades of Grey is an erotic fiction novel that was originally written as fan fiction of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. The protagonist, Anastasia Steele, is an inexperienced and naive young woman. When she meets multimillionaire Christian Grey she is instantly taken with him. On the surface he is enigmatic and charming, the epitome of the perfect man. Yet as Anastasia begins spending time with him she discovers that he is a sexual deviant with a love of S&M. One who wants to have a Dominant/Submissive sexual relationship with her.
For myself none of this was particularly confronting, it was not the first erotic fiction novel that I had read. It was the next part, the part where he writes her detailed contract including what she can eat, wear and how often she can exercise that I found difficult to swallow. Christian Grey is a misogynist who enjoys sexually punishing women and wants no other intimate relationship with them. For him women are a sexual toy and he doesn't not respect them as equals.
I think that it is okay to write controversial characters. Some of the best novels that I have read have had protagonists with outlooks that I very much disagreed with - Heathcliffe and Cathy in Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte, for example. But it is important to have a balance. There is a big difference between having a controversial character and promoting a morally wrong message. This is where I feel that Fifty Shades falls short. For the majority of the story Anastasia remains submissive to Grey in all aspects of her life, only at the very end of the book does she make any attempt at changing the tone of their relationship.
Through having such a submissive protagonist EL James is telling women young and old that it is okay to be treated with the inequality and manipulative control that Grey treats Anastasia. It is absolutely not. We live in a society where men still do not respect women. On the rare occasions that I go to nightclubs I have men touching me completely inappropriately and uninvited - and when I push them away they are surprised and annoyed. Because that is the social norm, I'm supposed to just accept it. The society that we live in tells girls not to dress a certain way, not to leave their drink unattended and not to go out at night alone - or they are putting themselves at risk of men. We teach young women not to get raped rather then teach men not to rape. That is the hard reality. Those who are influential in the creation of pop culture have a moral obligation not to promote this message. And I honestly feel that EL James does.
Strong, beautiful women who I admire have been swooning over these books for the last few months and I find myself disappointed in them. I understand its appeal. The majority of the public haven't been exposed to erotic fiction before. Its a novelty. But to be completely honest its not even a particularly good example of its genre. Go out and buy Bride Stripped Bare or With my Body both by Nikki Gemmell. Those are much better erotic fiction novels. Without the degradation of women.
Have you read Fifty Shades of Grey? Comment below, I'd love to hear what you thought.
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