I'm watching 50 Shades of Grey as I write this. It's all in the name of research. I considered watching it for a while but figured that I didn't need to, choosing instead to watch various analysis videos on the movie and the book and subsequent ridiculous books and subsequent ridiculous movies that came out afterwards that have white suburban women all up in arms.
I’m currently on the scene where Christian surprises Ana at the hardware store and buys all the kinky sex things one could get at a hardware store. Christian passes on the coveralls and makes a dumb joke about getting naked instead. The fact that he passes on the coveralls is an absolute turn-off, which goes to show that there's a reason why this movie isn't for me.
I’ll admit that it's not a terrible scene. Genre-wise, it’s not even a bad movie. All the formulaic stuff is in there, including the problematic romance tropes.
Let Me Not Be Jaded for a Minute
I remember trying to hate read the book in its heyday. I hate-read Twilight and actually enjoyed the ridiculousness of it, but 50 Shades was a different beast. The first sex scene wasn’t what I was hoping for, as Ana got her first-ever orgasm via nipple stimulation. IT WASN'T REALISTIC! IT WAS STUPID! CHRISTIAN’S DIALOGUE WAS SO UNSEXY AND NOT MYSTERIOUS AT ALL.
At the peak of 50 Shades’ cultural relevance, a friend of mine mentioned that she really enjoyed the series. I flew off the handle with my elite literary criticism. Because I was writer, you know? God forbid a friend of mine enjoy some universally panned fiction. I had to set her straight.
"There's a reason why Christian is the way he is," my friend insisted.
“Oh, because his mother was a cRaCk WhOrE!” I said.
I got fully animated. I used all the online talking points about Ana and Christian's being abusive, that Christan was controlling and manipulative. He was using his trauma as a shitty excuse to abuse the framework of a BDSM lifestyle. No level-headed person with kink experience would take a virgin to be a live-in sub.
I took what I thought was the moral high ground. All these points I made were warranted, discussing the book in a social context. My friend was just trying to talk about something she enjoyed, though.
At the end of the day, some middle-aged housewife literally just wrote her stupid fantasy on some online fiction site and people liked it. A publisher realized they could make money off it and a book was born.
My friend was just trying to talk about something she enjoyed.
I didn't need to be such a fucking asshole.
There’s A Reason Why Shit Like This Exists
I read My Heart is a Chainsaw shortly after it came out. I read it in small chunks every night before going to bed. At the time, my daughter had just started kindergarten. My toddler son was non-verbal and it was a struggle to encourage him to talk. I was working part-time. I had little time to do much else.
But I tried to read. And while many people enjoyed My Heart is a Chainsaw and I was very excited to read it and I appreciate Stephen Graham Jones’s writing style, I just couldn’t get into the fucking book. It was impossible for me to follow.
I didn’t like it at all.
There was a point when, delirious with exhaustion, and with a need for an escape from reality, I finished the book and I thought to myself, I FUCKING GET IT NOW.
I understood the need for a hastily-written escape of bad tropes and lazy characterization. At the time, My Heart is a Chainsaw wasn’t the book for me.
Neither was 50 Shades of Grey.
The right book? It ended up being The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, which is a pretty dark erotica, but it was what I needed.
Then I found further escape in some vintage gothic suspense novels. Castle on the Loch by Caroline Farr, as well as Wingarden by Elsie Lee. Neither impressed me all that much, but the prose was simple enough, and the suspense thrilling enough to keep me entertained.
It was exactly what I needed.
Domestic Drama
I myself prefer domestic thrillers when I feel like an easy read. I loved Rebecca growing up. I read Gone Girl and Girl on the Train. The trend kept going with Big Little Lies and Little Fires Everywhere and The Book with the Reese Witherspoon Book Club Sticker.
Domestic thrillers/dramas are much like “mommy porn” in that they cut into the meat of the female experience. They address female rage. They address what I call “girl politics”
These are all white lady tropes. Drinking too much wine. Eating too much dark chocolate. Wearing white, so much white. I’ve been a mom for nearly a decade now and I’m not going to pretend that these tropes don’t speak to me.
I do appreciate the mockery of tropes, though. I recently watched Bodies Bodies Bodies, which is a slasher movie that satirizes gen-z tropes. I absolutely loved it.
I’ve always loved dark comedy, ever since watching Heathers, which is my favourite movie of all time. It addresses tropes, focuses on real issues, but also has fun. It’s the perfect balance of everything that I love.
One aspect of the 50 Shades of Grey film that this video focuses on is the subtle characterization that the director gave Ana. There’s a touch of humour to it. A nod to the ridiculousness of the plot. The movie feels a bit uncanny, but Dakota Johnson at least plays Ana in a tongue-in-cheek manner. She’s naive, yes, but she has a bit of brattiness to her. An awareness.
I don’t plan on watching the other movies in the series. They’re not as constructed, an issue with serialized fiction, which is thoroughly addressed in this video on 50 Shades Darker and this video on 50 Shades Freed.
Oh, the Places You’ll Go in the Name of Research
Anyway, all this is to say that I’ve been working really hard on the third draft of my novel. It’s going to have everything.
The shame-smoking scene.
The sexy ice cream scene.
The woman tells her non-friends about all the “great sex” she’s having scene.
The woman comes home, not realizing that there’s an intruder in her house scene.
It’s going to be ridiculous. I’m still writing just as slowly as ever, but for the first time, I’m actually having fun while doing it.
I've not read or watched 50 shades but I totally relate to the conversation you had with your friend! A couple of my friends liked it too *sigh* 🤣
I totally get this. It’s not common that I like “popular fiction.” The style it ends up being, the story it’s telling, it’s usually not something I like. Plus, I’m a mood reader, for the most part, and my mood is usually something dark and broody or campy. I don’t do the domestic stuff. It usually doesn’t interest me. And when someone’s like I loved Fifty Shades, I usually smile and nod and I’m like well, if you liked that, then you’ll want to try these . . . And list off some books that I actually liked that may lead them down a better written path. Or if they really want some dark stuff, I have that too. 😁