to think that the popularity of 50 Shades of Grey...

[seeker]

...says something very depressing about the state of women's consciousness in 2112?

I don't know. Will it

Possibly, we will have to wait and see. I will ask my grandkids (when they are born and old enough) to make note. :)

x post. :)

It's just along the lines of Take That, Simon Cowell, TOWIE, et al.

A load of old crud but popular anyway, I just think people don't like to be left out of things.

Yes

It also made me think did none of them know where to find that sort of thing before? What have they all been doing?!

I thought that too Fox !

But yes, joking aside, I am finding all the hype about it quite mystifying. It's, by all accounts, badly written porn in which a woman is treated like crap. Is this what we want to give people the impression a relationship should be?

Plus, I will never forgive the writer for causing me to have this conversation with my mother in the supermarket the other day

Mum - that's that book
Me - what book?
Mum - that one. 50 shades of grey
Me -

So no one's got a time machine? Damn- I was really hoping to know whether ithings had improved over the next 100 years!

I think what I find most depressing is not the popularity of the sado masocistic porn - that's always been there- but the fact that it'a basically a book about a woman treading on eggshells round a man, and taking complete responsibility for his moods and behaviour. Just like so many you read about on here. It's a mumsnet relationship thread writ large!

Will we even have books in 100 years? Surely we'll just download them straight into our head by then?

It's not just really bad sadomasochistic porn...it really bad Twilight Fanfiction turned into really bad sadomasochistic porn.

So that makes it, exponentially, 1,000,000x worse.

And have none of these women ever heard of the internet? Tons of really bad sadomasochistic porn available there for free!

Probably Beardy, I was going to say we'll probably have built in USB ports but then realised that everything will be wireless by then.

If i see one more Facebook status about wanting to have their own mr grey I will explode!

I've only read the stuff about it on here and I guarantee that anyone who was in a relationship like that wouldn't be happy at all.

I haven't read the books yet but I'm seriously tempted just so I can write loads of negative comments about them on my FB, just to balance it out a bit from all the stupidly positive ones :o

Absolutely. My own unscientific sample of colleagues who have read it suggests they

1. don't read much
2. think they are being a bit "naughty" talking about it (they are adult women)

I did read the free sample on kindle just to see if it was as badly written as I'd heard and it was worse than I expected. Depressing.

You don't actually have to read it!

My college tutor is reading it and felt the need to tell me. I couldn't help but tell her it made me think less of her than I had previously!!

The only book I have ever read that made me wish I was illiterate.

How anyone can get turned on by a woman who uses the expression "holy moses" when someone is touching her "sex" (wtf?) mystifies me.

And that's before we get on to the issues of the nasty, controlling and yet strangely 2 dimensional Christian Grey.

I know I don't have to read it but I like to know what I'm talking about.

PMSL at Hecate's mum "Why do people do that sort of thing?"

There does seem to be a herd mentality about 50 - it's a bit "cupcakes" in that it involves women getting into something that is hyped up to be a little naughty in order to be part of the gang, when this would never have occurred to them a year previously.

Out of all my friends who have read it the ones who actually read often hated it and didn't finish it.

"I know I don't have to read it but I like to know what I'm talking about."

So do I- but I think you can make an exception in this case. Say that I read it for you!

It is a dreadful book and it horrifies me that people are still paying money for it. So any of you who need to read it for research purposes make sure you only borrow it. There are a few copies floating around mumsnet for reading. I had bought it completely unaware as to what it was (boy did i get a suprise!) So sent my copy on and i think a few others have too

I'm using my half read one as a place mat for a hot cup of bedside coffee.

You think that's bad Hecate my Granny asked me to give her a review of it

I am on chapter five and about to give up its a little bit rubbish, I can't understand any woman going into that situation with a controlling idiot! Why would you? The thought of a purpose built room sickens me.