From one extreme to the other...

[elisi]

Two interesting articles about Fifty Shades of Grey:

Consent Isn’t Enough: The Troubling Sex of Fifty Shades. The blockbuster fantasy has become a big movie—and a bigger problem.
By Emma Green, for The Atlantic.

Sex, Lies and Fifty Shades. Millions have read the books. Millions more will see the movie. And everything you think you know about it—and women—is wrong.
By Leslie Bennetts for Entertainment Weekly.

ETA: And via shadowkat67:

'Fifty Shades of Grey' Review - The New Yorker. No pain, No Gain.

This is the beginning:

If the figures are correct, “Fifty Shades of Grey,” by E. L. James, has been bought by more than a hundred million people, of whom only twenty million were under the impression that it was a paint catalogue. That leaves a solid eighty million or so who, upon reading sentences such as “He strokes his chin thoughtfully with his long, skilled fingers,” had to lie down for a while and let the creamy waves of ecstasy subside. Now, after an enticing buildup, which took to extreme lengths the art of the peekaboo, the film of the book is here.

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this...

*HUGS*

[elisi]

I share, therefore I am...

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

Those articles really are needed now - thank you so much.

[elisi]

Here's to wishing that those that need them most get to see them.

[devohoneybee.livejournal.com]

good stuff, reposted the second link. much to ponder.

[elisi]

*nods* If the book/film helps encourage debate, then that's good. (We can hope.)

[devohoneybee.livejournal.com]

mwhahahahaha! New Yorker

[elisi]

Yeah, I had to throw something more lighthearted in... :)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Interesting links, thanks :)

[elisi]

Totally my pleasure! :)

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Very interesting insights! Thanks for sharing, dear.

[elisi]

My pleasure. :)

[eaweek.livejournal.com]

Loved the New Yorker piece. Trust them to get to the point with equal measures snark and intelligence.

It's cool the books and movie(s) have opened an honest debate about female sexuality. It would be nice if the books had been better-written, but if they had, they'd probably have been largely ignored. The awful writing quality is one of the interesting points of the debate, if you think about it. That the books started their life as Twilight fanfic always made me giggle, because even La Meyer herself admits she wanted her books to have "the pillowy quality of fanfic." So I guess 50 Shades is fanfic of a fanfic?

It would be cool to have some kind of a panel discussion of Twilight/ 50 Shades with a bunch of fanfic writers. For all the talk of placing these stories in the context of women's sexuality and social experiences, there's been almost none (that I could see) about placing them in the context of female-written fanfic, which is the ground from which they grew. I'd be willing to bet the conversation would be very different from what we've been seeing in the mainstream media.

[elisi]

It's cool the books and movie(s) have opened an honest debate about female sexuality.
*nods* And there's the fact that despite all the issues with Christian Grey, he is... sort of a blank? The film is all about women. It was written by a woman, the director is a woman, and I-forget-her-name who plays Ana is also usually the focus. Christian is the [abusive] eye candy [that a woman saves].

It would be cool to have some kind of a panel discussion of Twilight/ 50 Shades with a bunch of fanfic writers.
Oh, that would be good. You never know, that might happen at some convention, if we're lucky...