I haven’t talked about it yet but after a recent job posting I was sent I can’t seem to help myself. I applied for a freelance writing position working on a “how to guide” for BDSM beginners. One of the requirements for this position was to have read “all the books of the 50 Shades Of Grey series”. I didn’t ask them how I was expected to read two books that haven’t been published yet.
You can expect to see a lot of this in the coming months. Movies, episodes of your favorite TV show, books, magazine articles, they will all be trying to cash in on the BDSM cash cow that is the adapted Twilight fan fiction (no bull shit it really started that way) ’50 Shades Of Grey’. But this isn’t anything new, if something sells you can expect to have it exploited. The BDSM community can expect a nice, bright, annoying spot light shined on it, looking to both demonize and romanticize the entire culture.
Keeping this in mind I feel like I need to get some things off my chest and educate my very small readership (consisting entirely of my friends and family) on why this dribble getting sales is so irksome to me.
My biggest protest is that it is terrible writing, but it is twilight fan fiction so I don’t know what I expected, it is also erotica which tells you a lot right there. I can already hear my closeted “girl porn” readers ( you know who you are) protesting. There is very fine, well written erotica out there; but come on guys you know as well as I do, those are the exceptions not the rules.
It has also gotten a lot of flack for not portraying BDSM in the proper light. I’ll confess that I have read just enough of the book and just enough of a summary of the book to have an opinion but I didn’t get very far it was so painful to read. Keeping my possibly ill-informed opinion in mind, from what I understand contracts were drawn up between the two characters which seems on the level to me. Apart from that though I agree with 50 Shades supporters in saying “hey...it is fantasy.” 90% of safety in BDSM is common sense, if your dumb ass gets hurt because you didn’t discuss what you are doing with your partner or because you didn’t demand a discussion with your partner then I chalk that up to the vital thinning of the herd.
I think the fact that this freelance job exists is a positive step, I think if people want to play in this world then they should know what that means and apparently there is a growing need for that. Ultimately I am upset that this one little piece of shitty writing is coloring an entire subculture that has existed since we first discovered rope. I’m upset that there are droves of people looking at this book as a how to guide and I’m pissed at the inevitable backlash on a safe and private community because a few idiots picked up a dirty book and said “this looks fun” and jumped right in without looking first.
I don’t know anyone in the scene that is open about their proclivities but one thing I have learned is no book is it’s cover and a lot of my friends could very possibly be curious but scared to ask. So this is me coming out of the kink closet and telling you, ask, because this play is for adults mature enough to do so...and in practical application it does not look like 50 Shades.
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