Ok, so here's what I have right now. My brain is oatmeal right now, so I'm not sure that I'll write any more today. If I do, I'll post it again, and email it to you.
A
Cultural Criticism of Fifty Shades of
Grey
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.
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, I will argue that the conversations stimulated by
them contribute positively to our current views on sexuality and traditional
gender roles in our society.
Fifty Shades of Grey has come under fire
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).
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 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).
(More negative here…it’s surprisingly difficult to
find peer-reviewed articles condemning Fifty
Shades of Grey. Maybe because it’s
obvious, and therefore less interesting?)
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). 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.)
(More positive here…there are a lot to go
through.)
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. 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.
