Magazines Explore the Taboo

Readers writing their fantasies

When a friend posted the above photo on Facebook, it made me laugh a lot. I found it weird that women’s magazines were getting their readers to share their sexual fantasies with the world but then I realised that I am an avid reader of Cosmopolitan so could say nothing. I’m guessing one of the main reasons for this sudden burst of interest into the taboo is because of Fifty Shades. As I’ve stated in one of my previous blog posts https://thehavishamblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/fifty-shades-is-nominated-for-a-national-book-award/, Fifty Shades was such a fast-seller and did so well in the summer months. It did so well in fact that other books popped up that were just like it, such as Haven of Obedience by Marina Anderson and The Bride Stripped Bare by Nikki Gemmell.

Does that cover look a bit familiar?

This sudden acceptance of taboo sexual fantasies has opened doors for women’s magazines to allow women to explore these fantasies in their own literature and share them with other readers. The article above from More is from a 19-year-old reader called Mellisa Potts. Like E.L. James, Mellisa is just an average woman (a student) but wished to share her honeymoon fantasy with More‘s readers. The whole thing sounds quite passionate and loving (which means there is no reason for the leather clad model with a whip on the right) and it all ends happily ever after. Opportunities like this for women allow them to express female sexuality from a female point of view rather than from the male gaze. Women traditionally hide their sexuality, they are a mystery or as Simone de Beauvoir says, “the Other” or “Second sex”. With women now openly being able to express their sexual fantasies and feelings, it shows that times really have changed.

Obviously magazines have been publishing things like this for ages, Cosmopolitan in particular focuses on women’s sexual issues and in every issue talks about how women can make their sexual relationships better or what they have been doing wrong. I guess some feminists would have something to say about that though. Keeping in the Fifty Shades theme, Cosmo included articles such as ’50 Shades of Grey: Top 50 Sex Toys’ many of which were available at Ann Summers who even sold Christian Grey’s grey tie.

Another example of this would be Rihanna’s song ‘S&M’. It was successful perhaps because it was so racy and it was even banned from several countries. However, in some ways all it is is just another woman exploring her sexuality through song…while parading around in next to nothing and eating a banana…but even so – still just an exploration of female sexuality just like E.L. James and Mellisa Potts’ story in More.

“I may be bad but I’m perfectly good at it” Rihanna explores her fantasies

So, it could be argued that this could be a forever developing theme in the media, with women exploring their sexuality and fantasies in this way. I guess maybe it’s a good thing because it’s from a female point of view rather than a male one.

 

‘Fifty Shades’ is nominated for a National Book Award…

says The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/nov/13/fifty-shades-of-grey-national-book-award

What’s all the fuss about?

I ended up reading Fifty Shades in an attempt to understand why it was so popular. Although, there are many many faults to the book I genuinely couldn’t put it down and ended up buying the other two in the series, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed.

It’s a story that his been told before, boy meets girl, girl falls in love with boy they overcome some obstacles and then live happily ever after. Yet, Fifty Shades really is a story been told before. Derived from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, Fifty Shades follows the innocent and virginal Isabella Swan  Anastasia Steele as she happens upon the perfectly handsome and multimillionaire Edward Cullen Christian Grey. The characters are the same, Christian is just as controlling as Edward and Ana is just as lame as Bella but instead of the cutesy teenage vampire lust, Ana finds herself in a relationship with a man who likes to beat women who look like his mother with a whip for sexual gratification.

It’s not for everyone but pure and chaste Ana jumps right in at the deep end and happily goes from “vanilla” sex to full on Rocky Road with extra nuts. I read it over summer while I was away in Turkey and there wasn’t a beach or an aeroplane without several women enjoying a copy of the erotic novel. Even a Turkish waiter commented on it while I was chilling on the beach with a cocktail and said that I’d really enjoy it. Like I said, I jumped on the bandwagon to see what the fuss was about and I can easily see why Fifty Shades was such a fast-seller.

According to The Guardian article, the novel sold over 4 million copies. Many bookstores such as WHSmith and Waterstones cashed in on deals such as 3 for 2 to ensure people got the full installment of the series. Fifty Shades is a way of experiencing the taboo, a fantasy world that many women could only dream of but never pursue. We’re lost in the book, reading about how Ana’s inner goddess does the tango and we take it in because if such a “perfect” man as Christian Grey says jump we’d say how high. It’s a perfect fantasy that one woman decided to publish. Erotic novels have always existed but none would have been as marketable as Fifty Shades. As mentioned, the novel comes from a fan-fic of Twilight which was already part of a brand and targeted a specific market. All EL James had to do was go that one step further than Meyer and create a novel that existed but took the story to a new level. It was flying off the shelves.

Whether it will be a best-seller, only time will tell but it’s easy to say that Fifty Shades deserves to be nominated for a National Book Award because of its sheer appeal to such a big audience, regardless of whether you read erotic literature or not. Yes, there will be an argument that we should make way for novels that are far better written and don’t have a million and one euphemisms for an orgasm and a female lead who schizophrenically battles between her inner goddess and her conscience. Yet, there’s no doubting that we’ll be talking about Fifty Shades as a phenomena for a very long time.