The phenomenon is seriously everywhere. It's hard to be in a room with more than a few women and not hear this book mentioned. In fact, I've noticed it's been a common icebreaker among we women. It usually goes something like this.....
"What do you like to do?"
"Oh, I love reading too...Have your read 50 Shades of Grey?"
"I love it too! Christan Grey is so...." (Fill in the blank). Because all of a sudden the conversation has been hijacked by Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.
For a while I was stuck in these conversations twiddling my thumbs, unable to contribute anything to the conversation. I had some friends (and a multitude of coworkers) that loved this book, but I also had some that were completely against even the idea of the book. I even kept hearing the phrase "mommy porn". So with all of this in mind, I was extremely indecisive on whether or not I wanted to read the series.
Then one day while roaming Target, I saw that the entire series was on sale. The shopoholic in me was unable to fight it any longer. I finally bought the books.
Then, a few weeks later I finally found time to start reading them. And then I was hooked.
It became one of those series that I fell in love with and was sad to leave behind once it was over. And yes, like the rest of America, I too fell for Christian Grey.
One of the funniest things about the phenomenon aftermath of this series to me though, and the reason I found inspiration for this post, was how guys view it. After reading a men's magazine I finally realized something....men will never understand this book. They will never grasp why we love the story, the characters, the sex scenes. The magazine I was reading seemed appalled that the sex scenes occurred so late in the book (chapter 8 to be exact). I suppose some men would think that connecting "porn" with a book would mean that it happens right away. They don't seem to realize what women really want. (May I also note that this is why it was a woman who wrote a book that sold so many millions of copies??)
Men are simple, they typically want only one thing and don't like waiting or beating around the bush for it.
Women on the other hand want more. Speaking personally of course, I like reading books and watching movies where the main female lead finds her knight in shining armor. It's cheesy and totally unrealistic, but it's what we crave. Maybe it's a genetic thing or maybe it was instilled into us with help from Disney. Either way, we tend to go for the romance aspect more than the sex.
To be honest, the sexual content of the book was sometimes too much for me, but the romance part was my favorite. It may be completely silly, but hey- at least I can admit it, right?
Have you read it? Did you like it?
-Kel
4 comments:
We can't keep copies in the library! haha
I've not read it mainly on principle that if it is "mummy porn" then I'd rather keep that away from my brain - there are plenty other books to read out there first before resorting to it.
I read an interesting article from a charity here that work with women who have been in abusive and violent relationships called Restored. The first post is here called Fifty Shades of Gray - Adoration or Abuse, the second is here called Myths of Abuse.
I'm not saying it's bad to read them but it's interesting to see other views for and against the stories.
Part of me really wants to read them.. but I don't think I will.. basically because I don't need that stuff in my head. We'll see though
I read it and all I can say is that I didn't like it, I just found it really amusing. And written in a very simple way, with simplistic characters etc. And it made me laugh, that's good. ;) I kinda thought that it was a waste of time at the beginning but now I can say that I enjoyed it but wouldn't recommend it to my friend. But I'm Polish, we are serious people.
;)
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