50 Shades of Grey

[Irezumi Hikari]

Anyone else have friends telling you to read this series? I caved and read a few chapters just to make a friend happy, but it's incredibly boring.

I wish there was an ace version of it. 50 Shades of Grey Aces, to be educational so that asexuality wasn't so unheard of.

[Kuroneko]

Nope have absolutely no interest in this series. Though at Costco, my sister picked up the book and started reading some of the passages out loud and very dramatically too, so we can have a good laugh. It was hilarious! I know a lot of my teacher colleagues read the books and love them. All of them are mothers so to me, 50 Shades is like porn for moms. lol

[Elluna Hellen]

A friend read the first book and liked it. But she's not pressuring me to read it or see the movie, luckily. Not that I would. Ew

[The Great WTF]

I could go on a long, hateful tirade about those books, but I'll spare you. I read them to have a full understanding of what I was criticizing (yay for being a lit teacher and a source of advice for students) and I have never in my life actually regretted reading something before that point. That includes years of reading truly godsawful fanfiction, too.

They are poorly written, romanticize abuse, and disgustingly misrepresent BDSM, not that anything less can be expected of a Twilight fanfic. EL James is an insult to writers everywhere.

[Telecaster68]

Out of the curiosity, I read the first one up to the point where they went into the Red Room, where my squeamishness overcame me. I know nothing of BDSM, but she's misrepresenting people in general, as far as I could see. It was pretty much like a cheap romance (with all the tropes intact) with some crudely misconstrued BDSM bolted on.

[Stephme]

I'm not keen on fanfics, so a full sized release of one, not even a good one, no way.

[Queen Under the Mountain]

I tried to watch the movie to have a good laughter but a friend told me it was so bad, that even laugh of it is hard. The book is funny, I mean, a girl from USA who never send an email? Come on...

[Sisky]

Maybe if someone paid me to read it... but I doubt anyone I know is rich enough.

Also, as someone who is somewhat into BDSM, it would probably be too painful. Pun most certainly not intended.

[biblicalsandy67]

So funny, I was just looking at the trailer of it last night. My daughter told me that she thought I might enjoy it, but she guessed wrong! As soon as I seen the trailer, I was convinced I did not want to see it. Made me wonder about her thoughts though, and it really made me think to myself...What children I have that may be Asexual? or maybe I had none! Plus, I will always be that person that does not like porn. Watching porn to me is like being a peeping Tom through someone's window, I do not need someone else showing me how to have sex...plus it always made me feel like I was in some kind of orgy, which was worse than having sex with the one person! I hardly even watch TV anymore, because of all the sexuality shown!

[somethingrandom]

They just sound disgusting and horrible and I would definitely not be interested in reading them. Why these books exist I do not know - there's no story or imagination to them. It's purely just sex, I wouldn't even find it funny.

[TophatNTails]

Ok, I've spoilered a bit of rage, if you don't want to read it.

I can't that something as crap as 50SOG actually became a bestseller. I mean, I nearly tossed the book out of the window after reading only a few pages!

E. L. James occupies the same place in my heart as all of the Kardashians (if that's how you spell the name) and the stars of Jersey Shore, i.e. People who don't deserve their fame.

I review books in my spare time, and I have read better books that sold less than a tenth of what that pile of bullsh** sold. I want to become an author myself, and I wrote a short novel when I was FOURTEEN that was ten times better ALL of James's work COMBINED!

Anyway, I hope that didn't offend TOO many people!

[Pengwyn]

None of my friends have read the books or seen the film. However, if we see the books when out shopping, we play a game of flipping to a random page and reading the first sentence we see. Thankfully, we haven't come across anything too graphic, and it is mostly really funny.

[テト]

• It's poorly written

• doesn't depict BDSM correctly

makes it okay to abuse your significant other and disregards boundaries/consent

everyone I know who's read it has hated it and talked about how awful it was.

[Guest]

I know people that love it. I read through a lot of the first book just to see what it was about after reading the criticisms... it's Harlequinn like in romance, with sex scenes that look like they were written by a 12 year old girl ("My inner goddess screamed!") and the guy's first "romantic gesture" was to stalk her by putting an illegal track on her cell phone. So, take Twilight, add a bunch of amusingly bad sex scenes and you about have 50 shades.

I really don't get why people love it. But, as long as people understand it's fiction and shouldn't be a script for how a relationship should go, whatever.

And isn't there a web series called 50 shades of A?

[Jea]

I don't want to read them to be honest, and none of my friends asked me to. I like fanfiction, but I'm choosing which ones I read. I don't mind those which are explicit if there's an actual plot, drama or hurt/comfort fics are my favorites. But if explicit sex is the only point of the fic...no thank you. I find explicit scenes really boring.

Also, concerning fifty shades, I have heard that the author hasn't done the necessary research, and that, therefore, she writes wrong things about bdsm. I don't have any details because I did NOT want to know any details XD

And yes, I wrote that in as many shades of grey as I could without spending half an hour on the post XD

[Autumn Season]

After hearing so much about 50SOG I asked my friends whether they read/ watched it and what they think about...

• It's poorly written
• doesn't depict BDSM correctly
• makes it okay to abuse your significant other and disregards boundaries/consent

...this. They told me that even though the author's style isn't refined, the book is a nice read. Also, none of them noticed that any boundaries were overstepped. Maybe they're right or maybe I should worry for their safety and happiness if they consider whatever is written in the book to be normal.

[Guest]

After hearing so much about 50SOG I asked my friends whether they read/ watched it and what they think about...

• It's poorly written
• doesn't depict BDSM correctly
• makes it okay to abuse your significant other and disregards boundaries/consent

...this. They told me that even though the author's style isn't refined, the book is a nice read. Also, none of them noticed that any boundaries were overstepped. Maybe they're right or maybe I should worry for their safety and happiness if they consider whatever is written in the book to be normal.

A few ways the boundaries are overstepped -

Christian says repeatedly he does NOT want his chest touched. He has a violently bad reaction to it being touched, due to traumas. What does Anastasia do? Repeatedly touch his chest, despite his reaction.

Anastasia has a male friend that is interested in her. Christian FORBIDS her seeing him, after the friend drunkenly oversteps his bounds and nears assaulting her. She sees him anyway, in secret, after the guy apologizes. When they are at dinner with his parents, her friend mentions it to make Christian jealous, not understanding the nature of the relationship. Due to his anger, he takes her to the boat shed to have sex, which she doesn't want to do and the inner monologue (you always hear her thoughts in the story) shows her fear of his anger over it. Also, at the same dinner, she pulls away from his hands playing with her under the table, closes her knees, etc in clear "I do not consent to this" body language and he forces it on her anyway.

Christian puts an illegal cell tracker on her cell phone to track her to a club, because he's jealous.

Anastasia is so insanely jealous of his friend that she repeatedly insults her, even though Christian warns her that the friend means a lot to him. Because the friend had sex with him when he was a minor, which, granted is illegal - but I know people who have had similar relationships when they were teens and I would NEVER insult the people they care about just because I don't agree with it. It's not my place.

Christian controls what Anastasia eats, drinks, her exercise routines, etc. Who she can see, who she can't. Doesn't take no for an answer. Is constantly scaring her by punishing her in ANGER (BDSM no-no). And I hear in later books (I didn't read the entire trilogy, I wouldn't be able to take it) freaks out because she used the safe word (which, again, BDSM no-no... your sub has to be COMFORTABLE using the safe-word to stop what you're doing at any time).

That's just a few, mostly from the first book.

[Calamity Jim]

50 Shades of Gray is a fantasy that somehow ends up being a stereotypical abusive relationship. If you ever relate to Ana, or have someone treat you the way Gray treats her, you are in an abusive relationship. Fullstop.

Also, the BDSM is unrealistic and unsafe, so if you are ever curious and want to try bondage, google how to do it safely. Trying stuff in 50 Shades will get you killed

That being said, I am totally reading Gray but that is because it reads like an episode of Criminal Minds from the perspective of a serial killer. It is amazingly bad, with quotes like

"Has anyone ever been seriously hurt?"

"No." Technically, Donna was fine. Just shaken.

[tuvok]

Never read the book and the trailer maked the movie look like a poorly acted secretary.

At first I thought it was popular because it was pornographic but from what I have heard the story is not even that good and the porn part of it is terrible. Are Americans that repressed that this is considered good? Or was it just popular and then it was okay to read it.

Many read it in public.

If a man watched porn in public he would be thrown in jail and put on a sex offender list.

I don't get it.

[MoraDollie]

50 shades is not BDSM. Let's put that on the table and have it be perfectly clear. 50 shades is glamorized abuse.

[Stheno]

The whole series makes my skin crawl. The only thing I can think of when I think of those books are the countless women who have been raped because their boyfriends or husbands read the book or saw the movie or heard of the book and thought to themselves that a bit of 'rough play' was harmless fun. As far as I'm concerned the series goes way beyond 'bad' and enters the realm of being evil.

[fuzzipueo]

There are whole websites dedicated to exploring just how bad (and out of whack) this book series is, with breakdowns of each page and/or chapter and how messed up the relationship is between Gray and Ana.

Recently, EL James' publisher thought it would be a great idea to do a question and answer session on Twitter about her new book Grey. Needless to say, that proved to be a very bad idea as she was overwhelmed by people asking her just what she was thinking when she wrote her books. http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarrylee/fifty-shades-of-shade#.upbVdp4yZ

[Kauko]

I skipped the book and movie, and just relied on the Honest Trailer.

[Grace Barton]

I haven't had anyone tell me to read it for a while, not since the major hype wore off (thankfully).

I did cave and try to read it, only because my sister told me I could not have an opinion about a book if I hadn't read it. (Well, this was actually in relation to another popular series which, after sitting through one of the films, I found my opinion justified). I got as far as the first sex scene before I couldn't tolerate any more. I just couldn't get into it. The writing style was very poor in my opinion. My sister kept telling me 'yeah, the first one isn't all that good but it gets so much better in the second and third books' but seriously, if it didn't grip me in the first book, I'm not waiting for the next ones... I found it very poorly written with very bad and unrealistic characterisation. I didn't get far enough to comment on the relationship itself, other than the very basic info I got was of a man who is only interested in a relationship he can dominate and control.

I wouldn't try reading it again, or going back to it. The only thing that would tempt me to read it is that I just hate abandoning books part-way through. But I couldn't take anymore.

50 Shades of Grey Aces might not be a bad idea, though. Or just '50 Shades of Cake'. I'd totally read that. :D

[Sisky]

("My inner goddess screamed!")

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AndIMustScream

[Zash]

I did listen to a let's read of the book by a couple of YouTubers. They do a Bad FanFiction Theater show, where they read fanfiction and make fun of it, and comment about all the bad writing. And usually rage. They have done two chapters so far, but, it is a bit hilarious... And has taken them hours to read that much. Because they keep getting side tracked on other more interesting topics.

For now, they will do another chapter if someone donates them $50 for each chapter. As they said, "This is not a better love story than Twilight." (Twilight only has a $27 price tag for a chapter)

[Autumn Season]

I skipped the book and movie, and just relied on the Honest Trailer.

x'D Nice trailer.

[Soraiko]

I have a number of friends who are into BDSM so they probably wouldn't be into it anyway. Also they generally know I'm ace so they'd (correctly) assume I wouldn't like it anyway.

I've read fanfiction that's so much better than this sounds. The movie looked kinda interesting, but I'd still never see it.

Also, on a side, after a friend's party she and another friend of hers, (all of us varying degrees of ace) went to a sex store, (we wanted an adventure and this is Vegas, they're everywhere and it was late so a lot of stuff was closed) and they had 50 Shades merchandise. They had a tie and it was very disappointing, not soft at all. The stuff seemed lame and not a good quality, unlike lots of other stuff in the store. So they can't even get merchandise from the book right it seems.

[Guest]

Im just going to use a spoiler because of spicy view, read with caution

Fifty shades of grey is the perfect example of sexual immorality, vulgarity and disrespect,I felt sick to my stomach when i saw the trailer alone its not something i would reccomend to someone who wants to see a good movie.

Christian Grey is an lust driven, manipulative,egoistic, self-centered asshole and only uses the poor girl as an lust object to fulfill his sick desires, its just sick making and disguisting there are no other words for me to describe how i feel about this.

A relationship like that can NEVER be healthy for a human being and i hope people who read the books and watch the movie are not using this as an example for theyre own relationships with others this is absolutly the wrong example of a relationship between two people, nobody wants to be treated like an object to statisfy your needs on.

That there are so many people fangirling over this worthless crap is beyond me because it doesnt even give a good example on how things SHOULD be like, I bet there are even better educational books to read if you really want to know about the subject, this movie and the books are far from educational, this movie is only suggesting that its ok to manipulate and use defenseless people to fulfill your filthy needs.

I say that this is the result of the writer expressing theyre sick making fantasies in a book, I dont even want to know where they get theyre inspiration from to put this stuff on paper.

Its very sad that they earn millions of a movie like this one but thats only because there are people crazy enough to spend money on this awful stuff.I have no clue what BDSM is but if it has to be like that then i guess ill pass

[seneca]

I don't know where I read it, but there was an interesting point made. Mr. Grey gets away with what he does because he's a rich white man. If he had been a poor black man, he'd be in jail.