About Fifty Shades of Gray...

[alfreda89]

Is THIS what this book is about?

I am speechless. I thought the book was merely derivative, mildly erotic, and poorly written. This is appalling.

At the least, this is a well thought-out analysis of FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY. So what do you think?

Comments

[aishabintjamil.livejournal.com]

I don't have any statistics on how the percentage of people who are attracted to BDSM and have an abuse history compares to the number of people in the general population who have an abuse history. I'm a bit dubious that they would be meaningful in any case, because you'd need to break the BDSM-attracted group down into sub groups. What's going on in the head of someone who is turned on by submissive behavior (either doing it or receiving it) is very different from the person who is turned on by bondage and pain play. However I do think that your sample is not representative. There are plenty of people in the community who have no abuse history.

These books have seriously annoyed a large number of people in that community because they present such an inaccurate and unhealthy image of the kink/fetish community to a lot of people who many never have had contact with it, and may be mislead into thinking this is how it works. That's a different, and also potentially very damaging trope.

You're right about the meme of giving up your sense of self when you get married being pernicious. That doesn't require BDSM, and in fact, I think it's more dangerous when cloaked in suburban respectability. There it can sneak up on you, and take years before you realize something is wrong.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

You're right about the meme of giving up your sense of self when you get married being pernicious. That doesn't require BDSM, and in fact, I think it's more dangerous when cloaked in suburban respectability. There it can sneak up on you, and take years before you realize something is wrong.

Exactly. It's dovetailing something that is already a dangerous sub-meme, if you will, onto the latest sensation, thus guaranteeing that legions of people will read it. And be subtly influenced by it?

I can understand that members of the kink/fetish community would be seriously annoyed by this book series. It only makes their job harder of explaining their hobby. I think that you're quite right about the ratios of abuse/rape in a sub-population versus the general population. I believe it is like children of alcoholics -- seriously underestimated, in both numbers and long-term effects.