Safewording! Kinkphobia and gender normativity in Fifty Shades of Grey

Abstract

This article considers the recent publishing phenomenon, E.L. James's Fifty Shades trilogy, from what may be termed a ‘sex-critical’ perspective. That is, it evaluates, without endorsing, the differing responses to the trilogy issuing from both sex-positive and radical feminist perspectives. Further, it subjects to equal scrutiny the ways in which the trilogy and discourses about it represent both BDSM practices and the rituals of ‘vanilla’ heterosexual romance/marriage. It concludes that both the trilogy and kinkphobic mainstream responses to it collude in rendering invisible the ethically and politically problematic aspects of heteronormative courtship narratives ending in marriage and reproduction by othering and scapegoating non-normative practices such as those included under the BDSM umbrella.

Keywords:

• Fifty Shades of Grey
• E.L. James
• BDSM
• kinkphobia
• feminism
• normativity

Notes

1. The compound acronym denotes the activities and identities involved in the following: bondage and discipline; dominance and submission; and sadism and masochism.

2. It may not be coincidence that Christian shares a surname with the Dom of Secretary, E. Edward Grey.

3. In a particularly bizarre twist, Bret Easton Ellis, author of iconic comment on 1980s corporate psychopathy, American Psycho, claimed on Twitter to be interested in writing a screenplay of Fifty Shades for its anticipated film adaption. (E.g. tweet on 10 June 2012: ‘Completely committed to adapting Fifty Shades of Grey. This is not a joke. Christian Grey and Ana: potentially great cinematic characters.’)

4. For a discussion between the current author and ‘A Radical Transfeminist’ on this point, see the comments beneath this post on my blog ‘Sex Critical’: Downing (2012).

5. For a critique of the politics – especially the feminist and queer politics – of the concept of ‘transgression’ associated with French philosopher Georges Bataille, see Downing and Gillett (2011).

6. This idea is found in classic psychoanalytic works such as Stoller (1975) and Khan (1979). For a critique of this idea, see Downing (forthcoming).

7. This is not to claim, of course, that adult BDSM desires are never the result of childhood abuse or that these practices can have no therapeutic function for any practitioners. Meg Barker and Darren Langdridge have written in a particularly nuanced way about these phenomena. (See especially, Barker & Langdridge, 2009.) Rather, I mean to assert that assuming this causality as universal is both erroneous and altericidal.

8. Similarly, a group of anti-domestic violence campaigners, Women in Need in Sunderland, UK, are pledging to burn copies of Fifty Shades on bonfire night, because they see its BDSM theme as propagating domestic abuse and potentially producing a new generation of violent men. See McQueeney (2012).