If you haven’t heard of the book Fifty Shades of Grey, then you need to crawl out from under your rock for a moment to read this. Fifty Shades is a book series that has been all over the press for the past month or two. It is being called “Mommy Porn” because it tells a very salacious story about a young inexperienced woman who gets involved with a man who introduces her to the world of S&M, and “Mommy” book clubs all over the country are devouring this book. Apparently we moms have some secret curiosity about rough sex. Who knew? After all, it’s certainly not the eloquent writing that is getting everyone…uh… excited. If anything,once you get past the shock of some of the sex scenes, you get a little bored with that part of it and start looking for the good writing, interesting characters and a clever plot to keep you hooked, the lack of which leads you to quickly browse thru the pages just so you can have some closure on the story. Oh! But I wouldn’t know because I haven’t read it! I wouldn’t read stuff like that!
This book is a national phenomena, a New York Times bestseller, talked about on network TV, yet I know NO ONE who has read it, at least no one I know admits to having read it. Hmmm…curious…Can you say plausible deniability? “No one will know if I’ve read it or not unless I admit to it, so my denial is absolutely plausible.”
This phenomenon of plausible deniability when it comes to having read the book has even spread to the White House. A story hit the entertainment wire a week or so ago that a powerful agent,who happens to be a close confident to the Obamas,was meeting with the author of Shades, E.L. James,and said that President Obama told him that Michelle had read the book and loved it! Skip a beat… the next thing you know the White House issues a statement that the President was only joking and that Michelle had not read the book. What did you expect? It is an election year, and I suppose the registered “prude” voters outnumber the registered “dominant / submissive” voters.
And why are we so defensive about having read this book? Are we really that prudish? So what if the book is filled with intense erotic scenes! Are we afraid people will think we’re into whips and chains just because we’re reading a book about it? And if we were to admit to reading it, are we allowed to read it in the same places most moms read their book club books? Is it appropriate reading at your daughter’s ballet class or your son’s martial arts class, while sibling toddlers are meandering around you? It doesn’t seem right, does it? It’s like a dad looking at a Playboy while sitting at Little League.
With the arrival of iBooks, Kindles, Nooks, etc. adults are reading more, which is good thing, but it also means we can all download and read anything we want anonymously. No one needs to know. We used to just take the book covers off and cover the spines when indulging in some trashy novel, but now,we can go one better. We just download it in the privacy of our own wifi network. We can finally scratch every one of our literary itches! Think of what this will do to crank up the demand for more fiction, and perhaps non-fiction,that people would never want to admit to buying and reading,but which they can’t resist! If trashy novels were a stock, I’d say it’s time to BUY BUY BUY! It makes me wonder, though, does this mean we’re all going to buy the Casey Anthony Story, too? God forbid!
So I guess I better just come clean and admit that I HAVE read Fifty Shades of Grey. I downloaded it because I felt it was culturally relevant and I wanted to know what the fuss was about. But I am definitely NOT reading the second book, Fifty Shades Darker, where they move in together and we learn why all of his subs have long dark hair. I’m definitely NOT on chapter 7 of that book!
www.mommywarriors.com
