50 Shades of Grey: Pedophilia hiding in plain sight
This internet commenter makes some very interesting points. In my own review of the book, I and my readers both pointed out how juvenile and undeveloped Ana seemed to be, and these two women (who have a background to actually know) agree. I can’t quite agree that E.L. James wrote her book with *this* in mind, but the idea that the book is a ‘con’ and that Ana’s 21 years of age is a lie is certainly an interesting way to look at it. If one argues that the point of a book is to get an idea across to the readers, then certain things (like the age of the main character) can be considered nothing more than window dressing. We’re told that she’s 21, but we’re presented with the IDEA of a 12 or 13 year old girl. Therefore, the book gets across the IDEA of pedophilia, but while dressing it up in older clothing to make it more palatable.
Fifty Shades: WTF?
Okay, I know I haven’t done 50 Shadesin a while, but… at the end of this Nostalgia Critic review, six men read one of the scenes while doing funny voices. It starts at about 19 minutes, and it’s pretty silly and hilarious.
Fifty Shades: Ch 26
Ladies and Gents (do we have any gents?) this is it. The final chapter.
Fifty Shades: Ch 25
Ana leaves Georgia, and Carla gives her the ‘follow your heart’ advice. Which, really, is pretty shitty advice. Follow my heart? Fuck no. My heart doesn’t know what’s best for me; it just knows what it wants in the moment and doesn’t give any regard to the future. My heart thinks that wandering drunk down Las Vegas Blvd, chasing the “guy with the shiny shirt” so I can steal it from him is a good idea. My heart thinks that quitting my dayjob to write full time would be a good idea, in spite of the fact that I don’t do well without the structured schedule that a job provides. My heart thinks eating an entire cake at once would be awesome.
Fifty Shades: Ch 24
Folks, we have just three chapters left. Baring any sort of catastrophe, I’ll be done by the weekend. Several people so far have asked if I’m going to be doing the other two books in the trilogy. No. Frankly, it’s a chore to get through these last two weeks. Bashing this book was fun at first, but now it’s just the same sucks, repeated over and over. It’s exhausting to get through, and I don’t want to touch any more of EL James’s writing.
However, the point of this tumblr is to make fun of bad books, and that won’t end at 50 Shades. I have a few terrible books on my nightstand that could be contenders, but if you guys have anything that you really want to see picked apart, mention it in the comments and I’ll add it to the running.
Fifty Shades: Ch 23
Hope you all had a good holiday weekend! Now, back to the suck.
Well, Ana’s mother finally gets a name: Carla Adams. About fucking time.
Fifty Shades: Ch 22
Ana opens up the chapter by pointing out that she’s drinking champagne. At this point in the book, ever mention of alcohol makes me side-eye pretty hard, if just because it’s so damn pervasive. She banters with Grey over email again, and calls him a stalker again, but once again no one seems to realize that stalking is a bad thing. And he never does explain how he figured out what flight she was on. Bribed the airline, maybe? They’re not supposed to hand out that information.
Fifty Shades: Ch 20
I have a lovely friend who travels all the time. He recently discovered my tea love, so when he was in London he bought some for me. I was all excited, because I love getting tea from all over the place. He pulled out the box, looking so proud of himself…and it was Twinning’s English Breakfast. Poor boy could not figure out why I was giggling like mad for the next hour.
On to less amusing matters.
Fifty Shades: Other
Realities of the BDSM Community
I read this post with an increasing sense of discomfort, and wanted to rage by the end of it. At myself. The author, and those of the posts she linked, makes very well-reasoned, very important points that should not be ignored by anyone who takes it upon themselves to go through this book.
I’ve never made any secret about my inexperience with BDSM, and my contact has mostly consisted of one-on-one discussions, so I have seen just the sanitized version of the community. But I don’t think that should be an excuse. I have, at several times, pointed out that specific actions that Grey takes do happen in real life and are terrifying and damaging. But I never once put it all together and realized that, yeah, there’s probably a lot of Doms that act just like he does. In failing to acknowledge that, in doing things like calling him Bluebeard because ‘he’s not a Dom,’ I participated in the atmosphere that this post speaks out against.
Sure, I could twist it around. I could say “Well, those other assholes aren’t real Doms, either.” But that seems like a bandaide, and a dangerous one. If we fetishize the role of Dom, if we fail to slow down and evaluate each person based on their actions, we run the risk of giving them a free pass just because they managed to get this title. If we say that only ‘fake’ Doms are abusers, and then are introduced to someone who others call a Dom, we set ourselves up to start from an automatic assumption of this stranger as ‘good.’
Yes, abuse happens in BDSM relationships. Yes, victim-shaming is horrifying. Yes, we need to acknowledge all of this, and work to a better solution. Kink is complex, and it takes effort to do it safely. It’s not a happy-go-lucky candyland. But that’s okay. Putting in that effort and safeguarding both our bodies and our pleasure: that’s a good thing. We shouldn’t marginalize victims or hide the dangers. Instead we should celebrate those willing to treat their kinks with maturity and equanimity.
I will do my level best, from here out, to criticize Grey for being a horrible human being, and to avoid any implication that such behavior doesn’t or couldn’t exist. Even though his type does exist, this book is being held up as model, as a standard, and that I will rail against at every turn.
Fifty Shades: Ch 19
Grey wakes up Ana a few hours later. She has half an hour before they have to leave for dinner with his parents. (This was mentioned before, in case I forgot it.) Why would you give someone only half an hour to get ready for that? Well, Ana drags herself out of bed and does it only 15 minutes, including a shower, so I guess she doesn’t bother to do her hair or anything. No wonder she’s always complaining about having terrible hair; she walks around all day with bed-head.
