A
Cultural Criticism of Fifty Shades of
Grey: Not Just Who, But How?
When Fifty Shades of Grey was released, it
took the world by storm. It is one of
the fastest and bestselling books of all time.
Author E.L. James began the book as a work of Twilight fanfiction, another hugely popular series of books. What Twilight
did not have, however, was a BDSM element.
BDSM is a blanket term for bondage/discipline, domination/submission,
and sadism/masochism. In Fifty Shades of Grey, we follow the
story of Anastasia Steele, a shy, awkward, college student working in a
hardware store. She is asked by her much
more confident roommate to conduct an interview for the school newspaper, who
is sick. When Anastasia, or Ana, goes to
the interview, she is met with Christian Grey, a self-made billionaire, who
because of his wealth and power, tries to stay out of the media as much as
possible. Christian, immediately
infatuated with Ana, pursues her relentlessly, ultimately confiding in Ana
that, “the only sort of relationship [he is] interested in,” is one where he is
dominant in every way, and she will be his submissive (James, 103). Ana signs a non-disclosure agreement, and
they begin a tumultuous relationship that spans the course of three books,
ultimately ending in them getting married and having two children, leaving the
BDSM out of their lives in favor of a ‘vanilla’ life.
When
you remove Christian’s need for dominance in every aspect of Ana’s life, what
you really have in Fifty Shades of Grey,
is the very conventional love story that we have all read at one point or
another in our lives: two people meet, fall in love, and save each other from
themselves. The BDSM element, as well as
issues of low self-esteem, childhood physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and
abandonment, take Fifty Shades of Grey
from being just another Disney fairy tale to being one of the most
controversial books of late. Regardless
of how you might feel about these books, the overall effect that they are
having on our society are plain to see.
The clash of negative and positive feminist views of Fifty Shades of Grey are helping to
redefine what it means to be married, and how people can function within their
marriage in terms of gender roles and sexuality addressed in today’s society.
Today, you can’t seem to
get away from the word ‘feminist’. It’s
in popular music, it’s on the television, and some of your favorite celebrities
are identifying as feminists. It’s
become the buzzword of the decade. So,
it’s no surprise that there is so much criticism from feminists of Fifty Shades of Grey. On the Radical Feminist Hub, blogger ‘Smash’
claims that “Freedom is slavery.
Submissiveness is empowering.
BDSM erotica is feminist… [These are] just a few of the lies that
patriarchal culture has served up for women” (Downing, 94). What is very interesting, is that it’s
surprisingly difficult to find peer-reviewed articles condemning Fifty Shades of Grey. Most of the outrage seems to be on blogs
and in the media, not from well-respected critical thinkers.
Fifty Shades of Grey has come under fire
online and on the news for several reasons.
One of these is that the book seems to enforce traditional gender
roles. When questioned by Ana about the
meaning of ‘dominant,’ Christian explains that, “it means I want you to
willingly surrender yourself to me, in all things…I have rules, and I want you
to comply with them. They are for your
benefit and my pleasure. If you follow
these rules to my satisfaction, I shall reward you. If you don’t, I shall punish you, and you will
learn” (James, 100-1). Ana must obey
Christian at all times, or she will be punished physically. Christian goes further, saying, “The more you
submit, the greater my joy – it’s a very simple equation” (James, 100). Carey Purcell, in an article titled, “Fifty
Shades of Feminism,” says that Ana’s “wanting to please Christian apparently
includes subjecting herself to verbal and emotional abuse from him”
(Purcell). The concept of a woman
completely submitting and obeying a man is as traditional as it gets,
reminiscent of Biblical law. Women were
stoned to death for disobeying their husbands.
Purcell also expresses her concern about the relationship between Ana
and Christian, claiming that it is one of the “incredibly – and dangerously –
abusive relationships portrayed” in popular fiction (Purcell). Christian stalks Ana, is in control of her
grooming habits and birth control, and demands that she go to the gym four
times weekly, and is even in control of her eating habits, as written in their
contract: “The Submissive will eat regularly to maintain her health and
well-being from a prescribed list of foods (Appendix 4). The Submissive will not snack between meals,
with the exception of fruit” (James, 105).
Purcell fears the “book’s influence on people and how they view romantic
relationships” (Purcell).
Another
place that Fifty Shades of Grey is
taking fire from is from religious groups.
In an article discussing the upcoming major motion picture based on the
first book. In an article written by
Gregory Wakeman, “3 Bold Reasons Why This Religious Group Hates Fifty Shades of
Grey”, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, says, “The
irony is not lost that the film’s main character is named ‘Christian,’ while
this film presents anything but a ‘Christian’ view of intimacy” (Wakeman). Wildmon continues, saying, “The Center for
Disease Control’s standards of emotional abuse and sexual violence include nearly
every one of the interactions between the two main characters” (Wakemon). A press release from RAAP, or the Religious Alliance
Against Pornography, states that “the story is presented as a romance novel but
it is far beyond that in its content.
The theme is that bondage, dominance, and sadomasochism are normal and
pleasurable. In the story the young Miss
Steele is urged to sing a contract becoming a sex slave and agreeing to an
abusive and degrading relationship….the books and the movie undermine
everything that we believe as members of the faith community” (RAAP).
Interestingly,
Fifty Shades of Grey has a huge
amount of feminist supporters. When Katie
Rophie, in an article titled “Spanking Goes Mainstream,” said that women “may
then be especially drawn to this particular romanticized, erotically charged,
semi-pornographic idea of female submission at a moment in history when male
dominance is shakier than it has ever been,” Rophie was met with harsh
criticism (Rophie). This statement,
implying that women are both tired of and bored with gender equality, and
seeking a more comfortable and submissive role sparked an outpouring of
rejections of this claim by the liberal feminist movement. In response to Rophie, blogger ‘Maya’ on
Feministing, says, “Really, I’m not perplexed by [fantasies of submission]. And
I am in no way appalled. I am fully in
support of anyone doing whatever (safe, consensual) thing that they want to do
to get themselves off. Feminists for
Orgasms!” (Downing, 94.) An article
posted by The Daily Dot, titled “Why Fifty Shades of Grey is Actually Good for
Women,” written by EJ Dickson, claims that “[Dickson has] a hard time buying
feminist protesters’ arguments that Fifty
Shades of Grey promotes violence against women… [it’s] a cultural
phenomenon that has brought non-normative sex and female desire to the
mainstream…Fifty Shades of Grey has
done far more good than harm” (Dickson).
If we
push aside the feminism for a minute, there are even more positive outcomes to
be seen. Lucy Jones, in her article
“Analyzing Agency: Reader Responses to Fifty Shades of Grey,” claims that the
book cultivates discussions about “non-normative” love and sex” (Jones,
226). Jones also finds that “while the
books seem to be presenting a male actor and a female recipient, the readers of
these books instead define the relationship in terms of passion” (Jones,
233). Instead of focusing on the genders
of Christian and Ana, it is the emotional connection that they share that is
the most powerful take away. One of her
readers responded by saying, “If more people had intense passionate
relationships like this (sub/dom or not) A LOT more marriages would be
healthier and happier” (Jones, 233).
Pushing further, instead of seeing Ana as being dominated by Christian,
readers see Ana as being in control of the relationship. Ana is “in control of her own sexual choices…it
seems, then, that it is possible for women readers to gain a sense of agency in
talking about these novels” (Jones, 233).
In the United States, the discussion about
sexuality has already started, but Fifty
Shades of Grey has stimulated that conversation further. Marriage equality is happening in a primarily
Judo-Christian oriented county. Non-normative
sexuality is being discussed. We are
challenging gender stereotypes. We are
no longer talking just about who we are allowed to love, but how we are allowed
to love them. As a society, we are
becoming more able to accept the choices of others. Fifty
Shades of Grey is one more talking point in a conversation that this
country so desperately needs to continue having.
Response
I would like to start by
saying that I read all three books in the Fifty
Shades of Grey trilogy. I did not,
however, particularly enjoy them. It
became a job because I do not like the idea of starting a story and not
finishing it. However, when we talked
about cultural criticism, it occurred to me that Fifty Shades of Grey would be a nice fit with this school of
thought in terms of what is happening in our country today in relation to
marriage equality and LGBTQ acceptance.
While there are no actual LGBTQ elements to the story, the BDSM element
has gotten a lot of criticism from people who neither practice it nor
understand it, and that is some common ground.
If I
had done a reading with New Criticism in mind, I wouldn’t have had much of a
paper at all. With my only focus being
on the actual text, I would have found an exceptionally lackluster book. I would have focused on literary devices used. I would have looked for metaphors, like: “I
feel the color in my cheeks rising again.
I must be the color of The
Communist Manifesto” (James, 28). I
would have looked for what other New Critical critics have to say.
There
is some information in Fifty Shades of
Grey that would lend itself to a Marxist reading. Christian Grey is a boy who is abused and
neglected as a child, and then adopted by a wealthy family. After Christian grows up, he starts his own
company, which ends up being a hugely successful one. I would have looked at Christian’s
philanthropy – he funds an organization that targets areas of the world that
don’t have enough food. He feels
strongly about this because of his childhood hunger: “Agricultural dysfunction
is rife within these parts of the world, and the result is ecological and
social destruction. I have known what it’s
like to be profoundly hungry. This is a
very personal journey for me” (James, 237).
I would have discussed the fact that Christian’s difficult childhood
drives him to be wealthy.
Works Cited
Dickson,
EJ. “Why Fifty Shades of Grey is actually good for women”. The
Daily Dot. 16 Feb. 2015. Web. 12 May 2015.
Downing,
Lisa. "Safewording! Kinkphobia And Gender Normativity In Fifty Shades Of
Grey." Psychology & Sexuality 4.1 (2013):
92-102. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 May 2015.
James, E. L. Fifty Shades of Grey. New York: First Vintage, 2012.
Jones,
Lucy, and Sara Mills. "Analyzing Agency: Reader Responses To Fifty Shades
Of Grey." Gender & Language 8.2 (2014): 225-244. SocINDEX
with Full Text. Web. 5 May 2015.
Purcell,
Carey. ”Fifty Shades of Feminism – A Response of E. L. James’ ‘Fifty Shades of
Grey’.” The Huffington Post. 2 Jan. 2013. Web. 1 May, 2015.
Religious
Alliance Against Pornography. Fifty Shades of Grey. N.p.: n.p.,
n.d. Print.
Rophie,
K. “Spanking Goes Mainstream.” The Daily
Beast. 15 April 2012. Web. 4 May 2015.
Wakeman,
Gregory. 3 Bold Reasons Why This Religious
Group Hates Fifty Shades of Grey. Cinema Blend, n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
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