To think that the fact that 50 SOG is so popular is a bad reflection on women or at least the woman who like it?

[Jiggleballs123]

I've read all 3 of the books and they are awful or so many reasons which I think most of us here agree. I bought the books thinking it was going to be about a sub dom relationship and wanted to read some porn.

But what really bothers me is that so many women are swooning over Mr Grey. He is their 'fantasy man'. The amount of times I've sene facebook posts about 'going to curl up in bed with Mr Grey'.

To me he's an abusive partner with mental health problems. I realised this when he told Ana he likes to spank women (or in his words beat the shit out of them) because they remind him of his neglectful birth mother. Yet she still continues to allow him to 'punish' her. The abuse continues throughout all three of the books and ends with her somehow managing to 'change' him ans they all live happily ever after.

Is this really every womans fantasy, take a rich, controlling abusive, abused lost soul and change him?

El James

God I am fed up with this.

Dear everyone who dislikes the 50 shades trilogy,

Stop patronizing every woman who has a read it and enjoyed it by implying that none of us understand what the book is really about.

Stop telling women what they should and should not be reading.

Bettybat Seriously? I've not seen the film, I thought the book was a modern skit on Pride and Prejudice ... How can you identify with Bridget, it's like identifying with Mr. Bean!

Mchappy, try reading Tabitha Flyte, good honest sex and the women take ages to come!
As someone said on another thread, the bestselling books we read in the eighties involving sex with goldfish, siblings in the loft, paedophile priests etc etc, didn't make me have a weird approach to sex...
and yet and yet...there is something curious why Fifty shades and it's abusive relationship has become so popular now.

Haven't read any of them but feel like I have because of all the bloody hype (good and bad).

I have no need to read badly written porn.
I can't decide whether to tell friends that are ranting about it 'well done for reading a book' (to the ones that claim to have never picked up a book in their lives) or yell at them that theres more to books that that.

p.s)yep I'm a snobby twat before I get yelled at. but I have an amazing book collection

If you are intent on being proxy to a couples sex life, then do yourself a favour, a few clicks on the internet will do that for you, without wasting hours of your time reading something that has the intellectual standard of Take a Break magazine. The grammar and composition is dreadful, it is just a cheap wank mag in paperback form.

I got 3/4 the way through the first one.

If people are really enjoying them then fine.

But....but it just annoyed me so much that they were so badly written and really dull. He is abusive and petty and selfish and in no way the sort of person that would have the personality to run a multi million dollar company. The sex is unrealistic and her internal monologue is so irritating. She is a wimp of a protagonist. So anyway 2 out of 10 from me.

In the end I'm very surprised that something that makes the Da Vinci code look like intellectual literature is making so much money. I wish I had never spent £2 on it.

I have also read the Story of O and at least at the end of the book you are left feeling some sense of what it means to sublimate yourself to someone else. I felt sorrow and guilt at my tittillation.

Having said that loads of romantic literature is peopled by abusive bastards masquerading as romantic heroes: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, almost all of mills and boon etc etc etc.

It is really rather depressing that women are attracted to that sort of thing but they are.

I'm not sure that the comment this book is for women who don't read any other books applies to all-I have a degree in English Literature (not language before anyone pounces on me about spelling or grammar!) and I have just finished the second book and am enjoying them.

Obviously it goes without saying theses books are not going to win any literary prizes and the controlling aspects of Grey do not rest easy with me, however, I have enjoyed the fast pace of the books and have to admit I was intrigued by Grey and the motivations behind his twisted slant on normality.

I have never been in a controlling or abusive relationship and I imagine this book would make quite an uncomfortable read if I had but I can honestly say these books have not offended me or made me think that reading them means I am supporting abuse.

Ana falls for a bad guy this is hardly a revolutionary plot, Though to me the difference with these books is the reader gets an insight as to why Grey feels that dominance is the way forward for him and with all due apologies to the 50 shades haters he does realise the error of his ways on falling in love with someone who is repelled by the idea of submissiveness.

I have enjoyed it as a light read-it does not reflect on my intelligence or lack of-it certainly would not suggest to me that a controlling/dominant relationship would be appealing-quite the opposite.

There's better hot bedtime reading though. .

And some people just feel quite strongly.

I downloaded the sample from 50 SoG onto my Kindle. I thought it was really dull. I'm not going to buy it. God knows how it's been dragged out into 3 books. Zzzz.

"He must be good she was a virgin and then had three orgasms in one night with no clitoral stimulation"
And a supermarket worker told me last week that young lads are also buying this trilogy.

*"He must be good she was a virgin and then had three orgasms in one night with no clitoral stimulation"
And a supermarket worker told me last week that young lads are also buying this trilogy. *

I'll join you there with the head desk.

ChiefPottererI am not a book snob, I read a lot, always have since I was a child but my book collection is full of these type of books. It's not people reading and even enjoying the books that bothers me. It people not seeing the 'love story' for what it is and women holding Mr Grey up as their fantasy man. That's what depresses me so much I think it's a real shot in the foot for feminism.

Caitlin Moran was discussing this on Twitter yesterday with the actress Traci Ann Oberman. They were saying much the same thing. The # is 50shadesofzzzzz

Oh ffs, nice one for the spoiler op

Seriously all those moaning about the 'spoiler' get a fucking big hard grip.

The book is predictable from the word go and you open a thread about the books then cry because a few things from the book are mentioned.

And to be honest I've done you a big favour as it will save you reading 3 books worth of drivvel, you really won't be missing much.

this article is pretty good.

Well you've ruined it for me Jiggle. I thought it was about interior decorating

Having a little laugh at myself, I had a big ranty post written out then realised on rereading that I had completely missed the whole point of the thread and actually agree with the OP.

Jiggle, YANBU.

:o

I thought 50 SOG might have been a new name for 50 cent or some 'entertainer'

You could do with a better thread title though!

I haven't came across many women holding Christian Grey up as some kind of fantasy man-the appeal to many I would imagine would be more in his 'devastating' good looks or lifestyle (ability to fly anywhere on a whim, eat at top restaurants etc...) or dare I say his fragility after his upbringing rather than his desire to smack and dominate women.

I disagree that this book is a shot in the foot of feminism, rather it has opened many women's minds to the genre of erotica and porn, previously deemed more acceptable for men to be reading/viewing/discussing.

Surely feminists should be embracing this change of thought?, obviously if you take this book purely on the level of dominance and submissiveness it is harder to extract a feminist message but then again many consenting adults enjoy these kinds of relationships and they work for them.

Grey overcomes his original sexual preferences for the love of a 'good woman' who has no desire to be submissive so although some could say it is a dangerous message to vunerable women out there hoping to change an abusive partner this may not be the case-Grey's desire for dominance was within the realms of a contract and with consenting partners this can't really be held like-for-like with a violent or abusive partner where choice or permission of the woman does not come into it.

My name is CountryMouse and I liked 50 shades.

I read a lot of books across a wide genre of interests.

Dont be a book snob. What made you so mad you had to start a whole thread about it? Jealousy?

It might be poorly written, it might be porn / not real porn - whatever!

Its just made Mrs James very rich indeed! There are lots of poorly written books out there, who are you? A booker judge?