Grey Matter

I want to start by saying that this book is not my kind of book. In fact, I don't read many books at all. I prefer a good movie. But this crazy trilogy came out of nowhere and when I heard people talking about it I was intrigued so I googled it and some of the return results were unexpected to say the least. Am I really the only person who had to google 'BDSM' to find out what it meant exactly? When I came across this YouTube video of Ellen DeGeneres, I thought, finally somebody who thinks the same way I do...

Don't eat the pancakes (click this and see what I mean)

Over the last few weeks, I have read some great articles and blogs and different points of view, all inspired by the book in positive and negative lights. So I read the books with the intent to write about them. And it took me just 2 weeks to finish them all so I must have been intrigued by something, I'm just not sure what exactly.


Once a story started to evolve, I was interested. Once there was a little action involving stalkers and a gun, I was hooked. And I won't deny that I am a hopeless closet romantic so the gushy love story wasn't too bad. Once I got over the non-conventional sex scenes, I was able to draw more from the story than meets the eye. The story might make the reader consider the deeper, unreported effects of sexual abuse, for example. The story could be about anybody living in this overly sexualised 21st century who either uses sex as a coping mechanism or turns to sex to forget dealing with real life problems. When you put it that way, maybe the book isn't so crazy, right? It frustrates me that the book is poorly written and edited because with a little time and care, it could have been so much better.

The story can be summed up fairly quickly: Filthy rich and beautiful guy with issues, ordinary and frustratingly naive girl with no life experience, far too much sexual tension to be normal and a few crazy, somewhat misplaced, action scenes. They fall in love despite their severely contrasting backgrounds and lifestyles and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, as happy as the ending is to the trilogy, there are so many tones of obsession and submission and dirty sex that it verges on smutty. I don't dislike sex and I'm not scared of sex, but it should always be something very private between 2 people. The fact that women are so openly appreciative of the submissive nature of the story is laughable considering how hard we fight to combat sexism and maintain equality. God help the men that have to please you is all I can say.

Apparently, the book started as twilight fan fiction. Funnily enough, one of my biggest issues with the twilight saga was the obsessive nature of the relationship between the main characters. I thought it was dangerous for young girls to think that obsession is a necessary prerequisite to true love. Well, if young people get their hands on this trilogy, which is easy enough with the click of a mouse, then the next generation is doomed. It makes me anxious to think that this kind of sexual relationship will not only be acceptable, but preferable in the not so distant future.

So ladies, enjoy the book, not just for the sex. Don't depict Christian Grey as the ideal man because he's not. His character is based on a blood-sucking vampire for flip's sake. The dream is not to find a tormented guy that you can fix. The dream is to find a guy that loves you so much that a plain old "vanilla" relationship is more than enough.