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Old 04-26-2012, 11:21 PM   #1
Saya
 
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50 Shades Of Grey

This thing fascinates me. Its fan fiction. Its written as poorly as the next fan fiction. There are direct quotes from Twilight and obviously the dude in question has to have vampire strength even though he's not a vampire for things to make sense (I do not have a high pain tolerance, but has a slap on the ass ever hurt so much YOU CRY RIGHT AWAY, and just with someone's hand?) Even the author is pretty humble about it, admitting its shit and she has NO CLUE why so many like it.

My favourite plot points:

-The basis is that its two extremely unlikable people meet, and the dude (Christian Grey) wants the chick (Anatasia Steele, awesome names right?) to be his submissive and gives her a lot of rules to follow, like how much she can weigh, when and what she can eat, etc. Grey is massively wealthy and makes like 100,000 dollars an hour and if she tries to run away he reminds he he can track her down easily. She is a virgin and only knew him for two days before submitting to these rules. Through their relationship they have a ton of sex everywhere in the house, he just has to poke her nipples to make her orgasm, and she transforms from unlikable Bella Swan Mary Sue to a hateful rich woman who blames her mistakes on the poor people in her life.

-Also Christian only refers to his mother as "the crack whore". She was a prostituted woman who was murdered by her pimp when he was really young. HE HAS ISSUES THAT ONLY DOMINATING AND FUCKING WOMEN WHO LOOK LIKE HER WILL HEAL.

-She marvels at how clean the butt plugs are after they come out of her ass. SHE DOES NOT SHIT.

- She asks who cleans the butt plugs, and Grey says he does, and sometimes he makes the housekeeper clean them. I can only guess he threatens her with deportation to do so.

-Her father tells Grey he should spank her for going out on her own to save her friend who was kidnapped. Grey says he will.

-She gets pregnant, he freaks out and screams at her. She blames her assistant for not making doctor appointments for her to get her shot.

-He flogs her stomach WHILE SHE IS SWOLLEN WITH CHILD and jokes about how the unborn baby must LOVE sex.

-He sucks melted popsicle off their son's finger while making sexy eyes at her.

HOW ARE THEY GOING TO MAKE A MOVIE OF THIS? After he screamed at her for being pregnant I kinda expected a sex scene at the abortion clinic.
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Old 04-27-2012, 01:38 AM   #2
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... I don't even... wow
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Old 04-27-2012, 02:24 AM   #3
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All I've seen is people saying how brilliant and liberating for womens sexuality it is. Sounds like a bag of toss to me.
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Old 04-27-2012, 04:28 AM   #4
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I enjoyed reading it BUT then I read things from a "so how did the author craft this story' perspective rather than thinking about it from a character rights perspective.

She's selling the whole fantasy about the rich guy chasing after a girl - and that's all it was and that's all the readers care about. They don't care about all of the points you mentioned above.


And it's more than twilight - twilight was rehashing old ground - think Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice - he's billionaire rich and he falls madly in love with Lizy, despite the inappropriateness of the social match.

It's the princess theory all over again.

It's the rich guy, who is totally fucked up, who needs rescuing and she's the one who rescues him, while he gives her all the materialistic things that she never knew she wanted until she met him. - that's the hook, that's what gets woman to read it...

it's the fantasy of the whole idea - that's why twilite was so popular, and that's why this was so popular... because that's the whole "man provides for woman" thing happening.

Oh and the other thing to add to your list is:

But hold on she's independent, and has her own job, but accepts his offer of promoting her into a role she's not really capable of doing, which causes a lot of discent in the organisation and serioulsy the only reason people aren't bagging her is because hubby owns the organization and they fear their jobs will go (and who would want to work like this?)
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Old 04-27-2012, 10:55 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MissCheyenne View Post
All I've seen is people saying how brilliant and liberating for womens sexuality it is. Sounds like a bag of toss to me.
I don't get it because it just has some BDSM (and even then most sex scenes are pretty vanilla), otherwise its just like any other romance/erotica novel. Its nothing new, women have been reading this shit for a long long time.

Also, Christian Grey I realized is the "I'm totally not gay >.> <.<" character from every yaoi ever. I picture him as Yuki from Gravitation, and Ana is totally Shuichi.
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Old 07-10-2012, 07:27 PM   #6
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My fiancée is now pregnant from this post. Thanks.
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Old 07-10-2012, 09:18 PM   #7
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I hate these books.
As a feminist, I hate these books..
As someone who has lived the D/s dynamic for most of my adult life, I hate these books..
As someone who enjoys well written literature, I really Really REALLY freaking hate these books. I've written better erotica than this.. hell, I've read phone bills that have been more erotic than these books.


But I did have to answer this, because I find the psychological side of punishment, discipline and correction quite fascinating...
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...I do not have a high pain tolerance, but has a slap on the ass ever hurt so much YOU CRY RIGHT AWAY, and just with someone's hand?...
Yep. And I'm a masochist with a really high pain threshold.. but the emotional aspect of a spanking can bring me to tears before the first strike is even landed, especially if I know it's because I've been disappointing in some way.

Last edited by Miss Absynthe; 07-10-2012 at 09:19 PM. Reason: edited for formatting
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Old 07-10-2012, 10:44 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Miss Absynthe View Post
I hate these books.
As a feminist, I hate these books..
As someone who has lived the D/s dynamic for most of my adult life, I hate these books..
As someone who enjoys well written literature, I really Really REALLY freaking hate these books. I've written better erotica than this.. hell, I've read phone bills that have been more erotic than these books.


But I did have to answer this, because I find the psychological side of punishment, discipline and correction quite fascinating...


Yep. And I'm a masochist with a really high pain threshold.. but the emotional aspect of a spanking can bring me to tears before the first strike is even landed, especially if I know it's because I've been disappointing in some way.
I don't own the books and I'd have to do some digging online to find the exact passage but the way I read the scene was that the physical pain of getting a slap on the ass was so painful it made her cry, not the psychological aspect of it.

And in the end he's flogging her pregnant belly and she and their unborn child who he makes very inappropriate remarks about seems to be perfectly fine and in no pain, so I'm thinking its meant to show how DELICATE and VIRGINAL she is in the start.
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Old 07-11-2012, 02:19 AM   #9
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I don't know why this book is seen as so empowering and revolutionary... I haven't read it but from excerpts and overviews it seems to have the same dynamics as traditional romance and is very awkwardly written. If BDSM or written erotica is someones cup of tea there's bound to be better stuff out there.

Maybe the reason people like 50 Shades Of Grey is that it's packaged in such a way some women feel it's more socially acceptable for them to read - like they feel a stigma about it, but are encouraged by it being on Oprah or what their friends are talking about.

Still not going to bother.
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Old 07-11-2012, 12:34 PM   #10
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I actually read the first book just so I'd know exactly what I was talking shit about. Kinda making sure I could back my facts. Truthfully, it reads even worse than Twilight and I thought that was bad. Poor delicate, virginal, full of self loathing Ms. Steele. Thank god Big Bad Mr. Grey is there to show her the light. Clearly lots of money and dirty sex is the key to a healthy self esteem. If only I'd known that before now.
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Old 07-11-2012, 01:33 PM   #11
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The empowerment argument isn't so much about the content of the book itself, which as has already been observed is template romance with ill-conceived BDSM elements, it's that "gosh isn't it awesome that so many women are enjoying erotica? it must be because they have e-readers now and don't have to go through the embarassing process of physically buying the book from a real person behind a counter"

Which still strikes me as a pretty weak argument. Also I think there's some genius marketing behind this somewhere. Some comedy radio show the other day played a song with a lyric to the effect of "why is it even getting a mention in this song, haven't we heard enough about it already?".

This is actually the second comment about it I've made today and I managed to completely evade the whole Twilight thing. Really genius marketing.
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Old 07-11-2012, 08:34 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Acharis View Post
I don't know why this book is seen as so empowering and revolutionary... I haven't read it but from excerpts and overviews it seems to have the same dynamics as traditional romance and is very awkwardly written. If BDSM or written erotica is someones cup of tea there's bound to be better stuff out there.
I see what you did there!
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Old 07-12-2012, 02:34 AM   #13
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lol. Must have been a Freudian slip!


Yeah I guess it's great and stuff that so many women are seen to be enjoying erotica and it's the subject of tv and magazine articles... but who says they didn't before? OMG THIS IS SO NEW AND EDGY

Methinks silly people in the media created a taboo (by presenting porn as exclusively male oriented) and then gleefully tore it down. If they want to have a field day about something, the non-sleazy female friendly sex shops are much cooler.
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Old 07-12-2012, 09:15 AM   #14
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The thing is women aren't discovering the wonders of erotica, women are rediscovering bodice ripper romances.
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Old 07-13-2012, 01:15 AM   #15
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True dat. It's possible that ditching the euphemisms, and turning the usual traditional gender roles up to eleven so they can be expressed in the more edgy D/s role play* has superficially rebranded the same genre.

*The power role play of BDSM is not sexist. I'm just saying that there are elements of control and power-imbalance in traditional gender roles, and I'm seeing an intersection between the two in how this author has chosen to present bondage and submission.

...And please tell me she has ditched the romance convention of euphemisms. I shudder to think what she'd come up with.
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Old 07-13-2012, 07:33 AM   #16
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I haven't read the whole thing but I'm told she hasn't used the word "cock" in the first book at all.
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Old 07-23-2012, 08:04 AM   #17
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Apparently the author had a tendency to repeat terrible phrases.

Word Count:
"Oh My" - 79
"Crap" - 101
"Jeez" - 82
"Holy (shit/fuck/crap/hell/cow/moses)" - 172
"Whoa" - 13
"Gasp" - 34
"Gasps" - 11
"Sharp Intake of Breath" - 4
"Murmur" - 68
"Murmurs" - 139
"Whisper" - 96
"Whispers" - 103
"Mutter" - 28
"Mutters" - 23
"Fifty" - 16
"Lip" - 71
"Inner goddess" - 58
"Subconscious" - 82

And according to the review I read:

Quote:
It's this kind of ignorant trash that sets feminism back decades. Women who defend this book are, however unwittingly, participating in some of the most blatant misogyny I've ever witnessed, giving the impression that some women enjoy being debased, abused, and controlled (outside of a consensual dom/sub relationship). This is not a book about BDSM, this is a book about one sick, abusive man and his obsession with a young, naive invertebrate. It's a book about a girl who has absolutely no sense of self, who sacrifices any pretense of individuality in order to hold onto a man who doesn't even show her the faintest glimmer of respect. It's about two attention-starved individuals with the emotional maturity of toilet paper convincing themselves that their relationship is 'like, the best thing ever, OMG'. It's trite, insulting, and dangerous. I fear for any impressionable young women who read this and think that this is how an ideal relationship should operate. If nothing else, it should be issued as a guidebook to mothers around the world to show their daughters the kind of man to avoid at all costs. This book does good men (and indeed, all of humanity) a disservice.
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Old 07-23-2012, 05:07 PM   #18
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The term "inner goddess" makes me want to vomit bucketfuls.
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Old 07-24-2012, 01:40 PM   #19
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You forgot "Bite" The amount of times she's bitten her lip I'm astounded it hasn't fucking dropped off. And I've only managed to plough through half of the first book ( woman at work brought it in )

I need some Gormenghast immediately. I need some sanity.

Where was that review Bourbonboy?
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Old 07-24-2012, 01:56 PM   #20
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Here ya go

Warning, the memes tend to get annoying at times. The reviewer posted one after every paragraph it seems.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/340987215?page=20
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Old 07-24-2012, 01:59 PM   #21
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Shows how badly standards have slipped. Nothing wrong with a bit of trashy reading but when it's all you read it's a little sad. There's a whole world of wonderful and educational books out there, I really don't understand why this trilogy is so popular.
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Old 07-24-2012, 02:10 PM   #22
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I don't either. I'd rather read Lucy Taylor. Now there's an author who knows how to mix horror and sex together.
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Old 07-25-2012, 04:46 AM   #23
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so how many people actually base their relationships on what should happen in a book?

i always thought that a person got their ideas about relationships from the relationships their parents had and the rolemodels around them.

plus this is a work of fiction. You remember that genre, right? It's the one where the vampires sparkle, hobbits live in shires and there is a magical train station in london that takes you to a witchcraft school.
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Old 07-25-2012, 09:52 AM   #24
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Was curious about the book until I looked into it... yeah... I'll pass on Twilight fanfiction / BDSM: how not to.
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Old 07-25-2012, 12:38 PM   #25
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so how many people actually base their relationships on what should happen in a book?

i always thought that a person got their ideas about relationships from the relationships their parents had and the rolemodels around them.

plus this is a work of fiction. You remember that genre, right? It's the one where the vampires sparkle, hobbits live in shires and there is a magical train station in london that takes you to a witchcraft school.
You'd be surprised. I once dated a woman who thought Mr. Sparkly from Twilight was the perfect man.
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