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Of all the places I’d expect to find a defence of “Fifty Shades”, the editorial page of the Sunday Times wasn’t one. Yet that was what it featured this past weekend, in a thought-provoking article entitled: “Under the swish of Grey’s cane is comfort reading posing as porn.’
It starts with the amusing revelation that of the 21,800 books left in Travelodge hotel rooms last year, some 7,000 were Fifty Shades. And it’s clear on the book’s limitations: “widely mocked as appalling written”. Author Minette Marrin explained: “Only the angry protests that it was a betrayal of feminism had aroused my interest.”
Its conclusions are interesting; “This is hardly a celebration of violence against women or female subordination, as some have claimed… [T]he book indulges (up to a safe and hygienic point) the feelings of women who don’t accept feminist strictures about female sexuality – who are intrigued by submission or who do not always want to wear the feminist trousers.’
I’m not sure I agree with the logic, mind. There’s a suggestion underlying that argument that being feminist and being submissive are somehow incompatible: that to explore the latter is somehow to betray the former. And that strikes me as fundamentally wrong. For a woman to take control of her own sexuality and explore it is an entirely feminist thing to do, surely?
Interesting stuff, anyway, on my train into London. And wonderful to see these issues being debated with tolerance so prominently.
PS a later article in the same issue interviewed the screenwriter who’s bringing Fifty Shades to the big screen. My favourite quote: “some of the sex scenes have had to be edited out in order to get some plot in”!!!
Simon
January 12th, 2013 at 9:18 pm
I definitely agree on the lack of logic of this argument. I never really feel comfortable in this kind of discussions since I am male. Still, beind submissive in my spanking relationship doesn’t in any way imply being weak or “submissive” in any other aspect of my life.
I love the last quotation – it’s a great indication of the book’s literary quality (i. e. the lack thereof).
Cheers
Rich
January 25th, 2013 at 3:10 am
I don’t buy the logic, either. Feminism (to me) has to do with how society behaves, not with how females behave.
If society could get the cane it surely deserves it for how it has treated many (if not all) women over the years.
felicity
January 25th, 2013 at 5:37 pm
There are plenty of us women on the scene who are both feminists and submissives! If anything I think people like us who have had to interrogate their own sexuality are more likely to understand consent and autonomy better than those who haven’t, and that goes for Dominants too.