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With much hype created around the 2011 erotic novel Fifty shades of Grey written by E.L. James, I decided to read the book online. It took me two days to read part one of the trilogy. To be honest, I do not think that the book is anything to rave or shout about. It is definitely not a literary master piece in my opinion. Once again, the novel has proven that sex sells with over 31 million copies sold world wide according to wikipedia, setting the record as the fastest selling paperback of all time. The story revolves around 22 year old Anastasia Steele who lives with her wealthy room mate Katherine Kavanagh. Katherine is a beautiful good looking woman who writes for the college student's newspaper. Due to illness, she asks Anastasia to interview the powerful and successful 27 year old entrepreneur Christian Grey. Ana is instantly attracted to Mr. Grey and desires to have a relationship with him. Mr. Grey on the other hand is not 'a heart and flowers kind of guy.' Ana finds him dominating and intimidating and yet at the same time at the back of her mind she is in complete awe of him and aspires to be with him. Ana completes the interview and returns home to Kate. Over the next few days she has several encounters with Mr. grey and eventually agrees on going out on a date with him. Christian takes Ana by helicopter to his apartment and reveals a few secrets about himself to her. He first insists that she signs a contract and a legal document preventing her from discussing his personal life with anyone else. Ana blindly signs the agreement. He also mentions other paperwork, but first takes her to a room full of BDSM toys and gear. There Grey informs her that the second contract will be one of dominance and submission and that there will be no romantic relationship between the two of them, only a sexual one. The contract even forbids Ana from touching Grey or making eye contact with him. After spending the night with Mr. Grey and losing her virginity to him, Ana meets Christian's mother the following morning who is delighted to see her as she is always under the impression that her son is a homosexual.Grey later reveals to Ana at a restaurant that he had lost his virginity at the age of fifteen by one of his mother's friends. In essence he was sexually abused and molested by the woman. He was submissive to her sexual needs and desires.The abuse continued over a few years. Over the next few days Ana receives several packages from Grey. These include a brand new state of the art laptop to enable the two of them to communicate and a more detailed version of the dominant/submissive contract. She and Grey email each other, with Ana teasing him and refusing to honour parts of the contract like refusing to eat certain foods that were written on his list. Christian asks Anastasia to stop wasting her time emailing him but rather spend time researching the subject of BDSM type relationships. Ana later meets up with Grey to discuss the contract, only to grow overwhelmed by the potential BDSM arrangement and the potential of having a sexual relationship with Grey that is not romantic in nature. Torn between a variety of feelings and emotions Ana runs away from Grey and does not see him again until her college graduation, where he is a guest speaker at the event. At this point, Ana finally agrees to sign the dominant/submissive contract.
Ana and Grey once again meet up together to further discuss the contract, and they go over Ana's hard and soft limits. Ana is spanked for the first time by Grey; the experience leaves her both enticed and slightly confused. This confusion is further exacerbated by Grey's lavish gifts, and the fact that he insists that Ana meets his family. The two continue with the arrangement without Ana having yet signed the contract. Ana manages to successfully secure a job at Seattle Independent Publishing, however she further
bristles under the restrictions of the non-disclosure agreement and the complex relationship with Grey.The tension between Ana and Grey eventually reaches a boiling point after Ana asks Grey to punish her in order to show her how extreme a BDSM relationship with him could be. Grey fulfills Ana's request, beating her with a belt, only for Ana to realize that the two of them are incompatible. Devastated and heart broken, Ana leaves Grey and returns to the condo she shares with Katherine.
Whilst there has been a huge media coverage regarding the book, I firmly believe that the book sends out a dangerous message that powerful and wealthy men are sexy and that women in general love to be hurt in secret. With domestic violence and abusive relationships soaring amongst teenagers and young couples I firmly believe that promoting this type of a book is morally and ethically wrong and absurd. Whilst the west is constantly against Islam with regards to women's rights, the question is what kind of women's rights is this book actually promoting?What kind of a woman would agree to be a man's sex slave? Every woman that I know wishes to be in a loving and secure relationship with her partner. What I am really surprised about is the fact that the book is free to download of the internet without any restrictions or censorship. This basically means that children are at risk of reading sexually provocative material online.The book has also been available in all bookstores worldwide without any age restrictions.Naturally, film stars and actors have come out in full support of the book simply because sex sells within the music and film industry as well. There is a huge drive and move towards robbing our kids and youth of their innocence, taking them away from morality and values. There is a huge sexual revolution all around us in a sense that 'sex' is being utilized to sell anything and everything. Sexy and erotic pictures are splashed across billboards, magazines, newspapers, movies, television and now more and more books are riddled with provocative and sexually erotic content without any censorship.In the past, parents implemented parental guidance on the type of movies or television programs their kids would watch but nowadays parents need to be aware of the type of books their kids are reading. What message is the book sending out to these kids? Is the book promoting good values and moral etiquette or is it simply corrupting the child's mind with filthy pornographic and erotic content? For those of you out there who have read the book, what are your thoughts and opinions regarding the content of the book?.....
