dagblog - Comments for "50 Shades of Feminine Repression"

And in a surprising new move,

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 06:08:14 +0000

In reply to Does she ever spank him? And

And in a surprising new move, The Onion reports that some middle-aged men are now open to dating much younger women.

And they don't even mind if these women bring along their girlfriends.

(not sure which color tie shows that)

Who sez there hasn't been emancipation?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiMMGC706SU

Hot! Sign me up!

Shella — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 05:29:41 +0000

In reply to 50 Shades of Feminine Repression

Hot! Sign me up!

Well, I was curious enough to

Ramona — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 04:23:46 +0000

In reply to So I'm trying to figure out

Well, I was curious enough to look at the reviews for the first book at Amazon. More than one asked if it was written by a teenager. Another looked at the repetitions. Pretty funny!

*UPDATE*: Thanks to the many other perturbed readers who have shared their own choices of the most annoyingly overused phrases in this masterpiece. Following up on their suggestions with my ever-useful Kindle search function, I have discovered that Ana says "Jeez" 81 times and "oh my" 72 times. She "blushes" or "flushes" 125 times, including 13 that are "scarlet," 6 that are "crimson," and one that is "stars and stripes red." (I can't even imagine.) Ana "peeks up" at Christian 13 times, and there are 9 references to Christian's "hooded eyes," 7 to his "long index finger," and 25 to how "hot" he is (including four recurrences of the epic declarative sentence "He's so freaking hot."). Christian's "mouth presses into a hard line" 10 times. Characters "murmur" 199 times, "mutter" 49 times, and "whisper" 195 times (doesn't anyone just talk?), "clamber" on/in/out of things 21 times, and "smirk" 34 times. Christian and Ana also "gasp" 46 times and experience 18 "breath hitches," suggesting a need for prompt intervention by paramedics. Finally, in a remarkable bit of symmetry, our hero and heroine exchange 124 "grins" and 124 "frowns"... which, by the way, seems an awful lot of frowning for a woman who experiences "intense," "body-shattering," "delicious," "violent," "all-consuming," "turbulent," "agonizing" and "exhausting" orgasms on just about every page.

I think its a combination of

Ophelia — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 04:03:46 +0000

In reply to So I'm trying to figure out

I think its a combination of the two. I wondered briefly while reading them why this, why now, since we know there are plenty of steamy romance novels - hell, in line at the drugstore. Its the timing. The fantasy of bringing down the ultimate white collar misogynist and taming him while stepping out of the shelter of chastity and claiming one's own pleasure is ripe in this climate.

Also - I happen to know that plenty of old dude's wives have this tucked in their bedside table. A girlfriend of mine told me just the other day she found it at her grandma's house!

Dan, I think you've nailed

Ramona — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 03:04:55 +0000

In reply to So I'm trying to figure out

Dan, I think you've nailed it. Funny how every generation thinks they've invented something new. It's what keeps us going, I guess. (I still would like to know how many of the old guys' wives are sneaking around reading those books. Plenty, I'll bet. Ha!)

We were looking for the dirty parts in "God's Little Acres" when I was in the 8th grade. None of us girls turned bad because of it, so I can't get too excited about this, either.

So I'm trying to figure out

Dan Kervick — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 02:35:55 +0000

In reply to I haven't read these books

So I'm trying to figure out what's so great about these books that they've become a cultural phenomenon, when there are books already out there that are infinitely better written and I'm guessing much more interesting.

I'm thinking it's because they are just one tiny age level up from the young adult (teenage) fiction that has been all the rage right? The books evolved out of fangirl discussion groups of the Twilight books, which were gigantic bestsellers and have a massive, very young fan base. So all those 15 and 16 year olds are now 19 and 20 year olds who are graduating into Big Girl fiction, filled with some sorta, kinda grownup sex and stuff - or at least grownup sex in the way that very young and not very worldly young woman like to imagine it. The literary quality would be at the same relatively immature and unsophisticated level as the books this group of readers is accustomed to. Instead of saving dangerous, mysterious but redeemable vampire boys from the clutches of Undead existence, the heroines are now saving dangerous, mysterious but redeemable tycoon-boys from the clutches of their unfeeling world of male competition and domination.

I haven't read these books

Ramona — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 01:54:00 +0000

In reply to 50 Shades of Feminine Repression

I haven't read these books but from what I've heard--including here--there is nothing in them that hasn't been written before by women. Women writing erotic books about women liking rough, sweaty--even kinky--sex isn't anything new.

Anais Nin's Delta of Venus and Little Birds, Erica Jong's Fear of Flying, The Story of O, Emmanuelle, 9 1/2 Weeks. . .

It's been done. Many,many times by dozens and dozens of female writers who really know how to write. It's no big secret that we women like that stuff. So I'm trying to figure out what's so great about these books that they've become a cultural phenomenon, when there are books already out there that are infinitely better written and I'm guessing much more interesting.

It could be the attempts at fixing the bad boy that makes them new, though even that sounds a little lame and way too maternal for a supposed bad girl and independent woman.

The Grey books likely have the benefit of timing, a sort of anti-old white guys making anti-women laws. Ha! Look at us! We do it! We like it! Whaddaya gonna do about it?

There is something those old white guys making anti-women laws don't like to think about: Their women are buying up those bodice-rippers by the millions. There's sex in them books. It's not all romantic sex. Sometimes it's real naughty.

Women are complicated creatures. So are men. The human condition is forever fascinating.

(Oh, and yes--welcome, Ophelia!)

Does she ever spank him? And

Dan Kervick — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 01:15:11 +0000

In reply to I thought the same thing when

Does she ever spank him?

And while the protagonist is gradually reaching the conclusion that the lifestyle isn't for her, isn't the reader meant to be enjoying the guilty erotic pleasure of some old fashioned dominance and submission when the as-yet-to-be enlightened heroine has not yet decided whether the lifestyle is for her?

I was told by the sales rep that some men in Manhattan now wear gray ties as a kind of "will spank if you're into it" signal for experimenting women.

I thought the same thing when

Ophelia — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:35:16 +0000

In reply to I was under the impression

I thought the same thing when it was described to me! In actuality, though, if you really want the readers digest version [spoiler alert] Mr. Grey proposes that arrangement to her, but instead their relationship becomes something meaningful, something he hadn't had in his submissives, with whom he did exercise those abusive and demeaning practices. She decides that lifestyle isn't really for her, so he compromises and abandons his old ways. The explicit sex scenes are not as kinky as one might imagine. Sure, there's some tying up and spanking but I think the important point is that its consensual and welcomed. I think that, though it might not be for everyone, the use of toys or the occasional spank isn't demeaning if there's respect and consent. The basis for the plot is that she's not submissive.

Well, yes, I agree that in

Ophelia — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:21:51 +0000

In reply to Welcome, Ophelia. Thanks for

Well, yes, I agree that in the context of a prime time series most of America sees the female sex drive (albeit in the form of the desperate housewife luring in the poolboy). I suppose my sample is lacking because I've never read the steamy romance novels with Fabio on the cover - they've always put a distasteful image of lonely, bitter, middle aged women in my mind and I find their preferred euphemisms of heaving bosoms and throbbing members rather humorous. Outside of primetime TV, and especially politically, the problem still exists. Perhaps a better way to describe it would be fear or hatred of the empowerment that comes from women being permitted to enjoy sex in the same way as men, as evidenced by the reactions.