On the subject of E.L. James

[verasteine]

I read somewhere that a woman's group in the UK is planning to burn Fifty Shades of Grey because it encourages abusive relationships. Allow me to boggle at that

Comments

[rexluscus]

I don't understand how anyone in this day and age can *burn books* and not feel at least a tiny pang of doubt considering the, er, historical precedents? I mean, really - who says to themselves, "well, it worked for the Nazis, the Maoists and the Inquisition!"

I do wonder if the anger at this book, though, has something to do with things like that Newsweek article. That is, because the book is getting so much attention, it's been co-opted by all these folks who now claim that they know "what women want." And if there's one thing worse than having your desires suppressed/invalidated/rendered invisible, it's having somebody tell you what you want and claim to know all about you as a consequence. I can understand the women who are like, "fuck you, 50 Shades of Grey does not describe *me*."

But, yeah, burning books is really not a good way to go about expressing that anger.

[verasteine]

Yeah, when you do that, you find yourself in pretty poor company. (Is this the point where I admit to having burned a book once? Er.)

I think a lot of the anger at this book is because on the one hand, indeed, women don't feel it represents them, and on the other, men feel the need to be scathing about women's sexual self-expression. I just get very confused when people want to attack the existence of this book rather than just go, "LOL that's badly written!"

[thrace_adams]

You make a very excellent point. My question is - we know there are loads of women out there writing - why aren't more of them making it mainstream? Why is 50 Shades mainstream and yet so many others, (and better written) aren't???? That is what is frustrating to me.

[verasteine]

50 Shades is mainstream b/c it started life as a self-published e-book that got successful, and only then got picked up by a big publisher. It proved itself before it even appeared in print. And the reason for that is really, really simple: sexism. 50 Shades comes from a company that's basically one woman in her at-home office (or it was at the time it was first published.) A woman who understood very well the market that could potentially be harnessed from popular fanfics made into original works, because there is a ready made market there. But the publishing industry is aimed at selling to men, unless you go to the very formulaic, so-many-pages-and-x-porn-scenes romance publishers that aim only at women. (Which is, also, considered a saturated market, consider the irony.)

[thrace_adams]

You make very valid points, I never thought about it like that. Thanks :D

[verasteine]

I'm glad my timing was good. ♥

[unnecessary_]

I agree with you on this. There should be open discussion about what these books mean for women and about the state of the world. I don't believe in censorship, ever.

[verasteine]

I think these books are such a sign of what's wrong with things, and instead, people are hating on the book, which seems so pointless.

[smirra]

Sadly to me, that's not the only example I thought of feminism being anti-thetical to the concept. Would be quite unpleasant to think that is because it's easier.
But I'm not that curious about Shades of Grey though.

[verasteine]

I should like to think this is not the only example, by jove. It happens frequently enough, but this novel seems to be drawing all the anti-woman fire it can get, and it isn't fair. I haven't read it either, and I don't plan to, but it doesn't mean it gets fair treatment or not.

[smirra]

I'm german and we have quite leading ladies who like to speak up at the occasion but lately they drive me nuts. In my opinion they miss important issues, they part women more than to unite them, they don't update their program and thoughts, like it's still the seventies we're live in. Not really clever. It's also my impression that they are more and more ignored.

[verasteine]

Women in politics are usually in a bind; they can't just appeal to the female vote. I'm not familiar with German politics, so I couldn't comment, but this sort of stuff is the reason I personally vote for fringe parties.