50 Shades of Fun

If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.

--Herodotus (484BC-430BC), The Histories of Herodotus

So this post is about the book Fifty Shades of Gray.  It's amazing to me how it is becoming the talk of the summer.  And I'm in the middle of reading them.  And I've been reading all the facebook posts and essays about them.

 

Let me be perfectly clear: 

• I'm a feminist. I believe that women are amazing, capable of anything and everything and that, if given the chance, they could run the world better than men.
• I'm against abuse of women of any kind.  I've seen my share of it (actually more than my share it seems lately) and abuse can not and should not be tolerated in any form: emotional, physical, sexual. 
• I was an english major.  I appreciate good writing and interesting use of the language. 

Based on all that, I should HATE Fifty Shades of Gray.  It's poorly written and has the same phrases used over and over again.  It is an abusive relationship--filled with a man who only knows how to dominate women and a woman who lets her sexual desire trump her common sense and thinks violence is hot. 

BUT I DON'T hate it; I really am enjoying it.  Loosen up people.  It's fun.  It's silly.  It's escapist.  I'm enjoying it immensely.  I don't want to put it down and it is a great little retreat from this crazy world of mine. 

I think we need to give the women who are reading this a little more credit.  I don't think that reading this book is more likely to make me get into an abusive relationship any more than reading the Twilight series made me want to get into a relationship with a vampire. 

Sometimes it is good not to take things so seriously.

 

(So excuse me as I go back--I'm on book two and they're about to go into the playroom again.  I'm really hoping that they use those balls in her "sex" along with two or three of the whips!)