Have Some People Even Read 50 Shades?

[nadabrovitchka]

Honestly I havent read 50 shades or twilight. The second one I dont get all the fuzz about it, didnt even seen the movies. I prefer queen of the damned kind of thing.. I guess they don't make vampires as before :)

[aquaabb]

ok so just to put in my 2 cents :)

 

i have read the books well listened to them i like to listen to audio books while i am doing stuff although i would not recomend listening to it in public places.

 

so, my thoughts, honestly i feel for a lack of a better word a bit 'meh' about it. It was not bad (obviously because i listened to all of them) but honestly like many others have said i do not see what all of the hype is about because honestly i am a big reader of both books and fanfiction and if i was going to grade it on a school grading system ( that is how i veiew the different qualities of fiction in my head) this one would probably be smak bang between a C and a B for good coherant writing style but lack that umpth to write those amazing epic tales that some authors pull off so flawlessly. Infact if we are going to start publishing fanfiction i have a list a mile whide of authors with better technic and story plotline that i would recomend to print long befor i recoment this series.

 

as for some of the other topics discused

 

yes i do think this story presents a kiddy pool view of the bdsm world, in fact this barly touches bdsm outside outside of some of the more socialy acceptable generic elements (wich i will not discuss here as we are keeping this forum pg rated :)

 

as for the whole feminism debate. no i do not think that this book is anti feminist, and before you start screeming at me i want you to listen to my reasons why,( and i would love to see what some of you other guys have to say about this). Firstly feminisim like beauty is and religon is subjective, people have verry different views on what it is and what it means to them but i think that it is this ubjectivity which causes the most confusion. Firstly feminisim started as a movement for equal rights amounst men and women on how they CHOOSE to live there lives and represent themselves without scorn, and in some ways they have been increadibly successful. the problem with this movement is that for many they feel that women have to be the opposite of traditional female values to be feminist, and the same tends to happen in the media. If a woman is not a strong kickass carickter than she is anit-femminist and this frustrates me because it seems that for a charicter to be accepted they have to be strong positive role models of strong women and the reality is that while some women are like that, just as many arnt and filtering the media for only 'femminist' aproved charicters will remove a large chunk of the human spectrum. some women are like how it is represented in twilight and 50 shades and while i am bringing up twilight have you seen teenaged romances? because what i remember of them they had a lot of the twilight trde mark issues such as constant contact and focus on the boyfriend to the detrement of all else.

[dayday0819]

At camp, we read it together as a cabin for a joke. Because it was my friends reading it aloud, I couldn't exactly get into the erotica part, although I'm not hugely into that anyways. Honestly, the biggest problem I had with the book is that it simply wasn't well written. There wasn't much of a plot, character development, or just overall good writing. Some of it seems downright childish, such as when she talks about her 'inner goddess' and stuff. It's just weird. It's so focused on being sexy that nothing actually happens in the book, which works against itself by taking away from the sexiness of it.

[Navy]

I'm a big fan of fanfiction so I've read the good, the bad, and the ugly. This was a poorly written, over-hyped, and disturbing book. There is a difference between BDSM and abuse, this contained a lot of the latter. I'm not ashamed of it, as an adult I can appreciate smut as much as anyone else, but I can tell the difference between good smut and bad smut, this is bad smut.

[minniemeggie]

I read all the books on the plane to Greece. Silly me only brought those books thinking I would like them as I like erotic fiction, heard great things and know several people in the BDSM community I thought it would be interesting.

 

The books, in my opinion, were awful. The story progression reminded me of the Sweet Valley High books I read as a kid and the wording its self was poor. I felt like this very adult themed book was written for a teenager.

 

I had no idea this series started as Twillight fanfic and that makes total sense to me now. I hate how hyped up this book is and the BDSM in this book was pretty tame, I guess because of all the hype I thought it was going to be a bit more... raunchy?

 

Needless to say laughing at how bad the books where and reading the poor dialogue out loud to my husband was quite amusing.

[hanalways]

I'm super late to the party but in my opinion.

 

No. No nono nonononononononononono. No. This book is FULL of nos.

 

Horrible writing, character development, etc aside it is riding a VERY fine line between exploring your fantasies and encouraging non-consensual behavior and the latter is just downright dangerous. This book is NOT BDSM, even though people keep attributing BDSM to it. The BDSM community is all about safe, consensual sex.

 

BDSM is all about trust, and with that trust you can open up a whole new level of understanding and intimacy. BDSM can often be exhausting, and there is a term in the community called "aftercare". Aftercare is when they help transition out of these fantasies and often talk and take care of each other, ensuring that the submissive OR the dominant gets the emotional support that they need after such an ordeal. In the book Christian does not do any aftercare, which is one of the most important priorities in a sexual relationship, and in the BDSM community (and in all honesty, how sexuality should be viewed) this is straight up abuse. In the book Ana is scared, feels trapped, and feels often misunderstood. These are terms that should not EVER enter a sexual relationship.

 

He uses alcohol to sway her consent - this, by legal definition, is rape. If you ever get in a situation where you do not want to be there, and a partner is trying to make you change your opinion with substances, this is not a sexy time and do not confuse your feelings by his wants. It is your right to say no, and do not be swayed by his persistence, he should respect your decision. He says that he needs to her to be honest with him, but he holds a double standard that he doesn't have to be with her. THIS STRIPS AWAY HER POWER TO HOLD HER OWN THOUGHTS AND BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY HOW SHE WANTS TO CONFIDE IN PEOPLE. Christian overpowers her, not just in the bedroom but by buying her a car, owning the company she works for, etc. This disempowers her as she has no identity anymore.

 

I'm not going to say that you shouldn't read the book, but if you do please please please keep these things in mind and do not let it alter any perception in how beautiful, unique and amazing you are as an individual, especially sexually. You deserve a healthy, open, trusting and consensual sexual relationship NOT an abusive, manipulative one (which Christian continues to be throughout the whole book). Smut is awesome, reading things to get the lady-bits (or man-bits) tingling is great, but please do not let the things you read sway what you know is right, and what keeps you feeling a strong sexual individual.

[AllTimeMarr]

I really want to see the movie, and probably I should read the book first though. 'Cause reading a book after you watched to movie pretty much blows.

[neopets98]

I haven't read it as I don't find what it's about interesting, but the actor playing the main character in the movie is very attractive :P

[lizzyjane101]

I couldn't bring myself to read it. Opened it in a bookshop once out of curiosity, saw a random, unexplained tense change, and closed it again. Even ignoring the dangerous and offensive content, it's terrible writing. Even when I was a young teenager writing smut fics, I could do a bit of research to make sure what I was writing was accurate. It's really not that hard. If a gay female can write about two guys getting it on with anatomical accuracy, a straight girl should be able to write about straight sex without too much difficulty.

It's just really really bad writing. I don't understand how this could possibly be published. I can think of 100 fanfic authors off the top of my head (including myself) that can write better than that. My eleven-year-old music students could probably do a better job.

 

as for the whole feminism debate. no i do not think that this book is anti feminist, and before you start screeming at me i want you to listen to my reasons why,( and i would love to see what some of you other guys have to say about this). Firstly feminisim like beauty is and religon is subjective, people have verry different views on what it is and what it means to them but i think that it is this ubjectivity which causes the most confusion. Firstly feminisim started as a movement for equal rights amounst men and women on how they CHOOSE to live there lives and represent themselves without scorn, and in some ways they have been increadibly successful. the problem with this movement is that for many they feel that women have to be the opposite of traditional female values to be feminist, and the same tends to happen in the media. If a woman is not a strong kickass carickter than she is anit-femminist and this frustrates me because it seems that for a charicter to be accepted they have to be strong positive role models of strong women and the reality is that while some women are like that, just as many arnt and filtering the media for only 'femminist' aproved charicters will remove a large chunk of the human spectrum. some women are like how it is represented in twilight and 50 shades and while i am bringing up twilight have you seen teenaged romances? because what i remember of them they had a lot of the twilight trde mark issues such as constant contact and focus on the boyfriend to the detrement of all else.

 

I'm sorry, but I have to say I'd disagree with this one. My beef isn't with Ana's female sexuality or submissive role in the bedroom. As stated in previous comments, Christian is controlling and abusive. For me, feminism is about saying that women should be just as powerful as men. They don't necessarily have to always be the agressor in a relationship, but they should NEVER be made to feel that their body, mind, workplace, or home does not belong to them. If you want to wear pink, frilly skirts everywhere, that's totally fine. If you like subbing for your partner while they do cool stuff in the bedroom, that's also totally fine. What's not fine is when you have no choice over when or how you get to have sex. I actually didn't mind Twilight that much. It was no Shakespeare, but I got through all four books. However, there were a couple of things that made me uncomfortable and one was that part where Bella went for a girls' night out with her friends and she was being harrassed by some guys. Edward was stalking her. Of course I'm happy he could help her, but the fact he was there at all made me really uncomfortable.

Their relationship is abuse, plain and simple. The books glamorise abuse and that's not okay. You can bet your socks that girls are reading it and thinking 'hey, this is kinda hot. I should try this stuff with my man.' People will get hurt by the existence of this book.

[eloralestrange]

Yes, some people basically say it's just a twilight fanfiction. lol. 

I haven't read the book, but I've watched the movie. Although come to think of it, I could absolutely read the book if I wanted to. But alas, I have too many unread books as it is. 

In my opinion, there's not enough consent to be considered good BDSM. Having her sign a contract when he knows she has no idea what she's getting herself into? Having her sign a contract at all?

Although I guess it it's just a movie, but it might confuse the masses.