Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey (32 page)

There were worse threats on the horizon, though: a year after Metalious passed away, the police chief of Manchester, New Hampshire, banned Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg’s novel,
Candy
, calling it “the worst I’ve ever seen.” Chief Francis P. McGranaghan added, “This book makes
Peyton Place
look like a Sunday school text.” By the seventy-fifth anniversary of Grace Metalious’ birth, in 1999,
Peyton Place
was out of print and mostly forgotten.

Today, things are looking up for Grace Metalious’ legacy.
Petyon Place
is back in print. And while her name was long considered an embarrassment to her hometown of Gilmanton, New Hampshire (population: 3,060), Metalious’ old estate has been
turned into the Gilmanton Winery, billed without shame as the “Home of
Peyton Place
.” A fitting tribute, indeed.

LYSS STERN

W
HEN E. L. JAMES did her first US book tour in May 2012, people were surprised that two of her stops were sold-out luncheons (at $85 per person, no less) at country clubs in Long Island and Westchester hosted by a group of suburban New York moms. I’m the woman behind
Fifty Shades of Diva Frenzy
, and the founder of DivaLysscious Moms, and
www.divamoms.com
(which I always describe as
Sex and the City
meets Mommy & Me). I knew E. L. James spoke for us and knew she
had
to speak to us.

I had read the first two books back in November and honestly could not put them down. I knew that
Fifty Shades Freed
, the third book in the trilogy, was going to be released in January, and I knew that the DivaMoms.com book club had to launch the book as we’ve done for so many other amazing authors. I decided to email E. L. James in London and explain to her what I did, how much I LOVED the first two books, and that I would be honored to throw her a DivaMoms book club launch party.

A few days later she responded, telling me that she was the mom of two boys and that she would be honored to have us launch
Fifty Shades Freed
to the DivaMoms. She also said she would be in New York City in three weeks!

My work was cut out for me. I knew I had to get this event done! And so using my DivaMagic, I brought the DivaMoms launch of
Fifty Shades Freed
to a beautiful penthouse apartment in Chelsea. We reached out to over 380,000 of the most influential moms in the area via our database and social media. Just by posting the event on our Facebook page, we had 900 RSVPs in hours. But the event space could only hold 200 moms. I was in a panic. But we made it happen and the apartment was filled wall to wall with moms—women from Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey who drove in to be at this event.

I knew then and there that E. L. James was going to be the next J.K. Rowling and that her big book and movie deals were just moments away.

The Fifty Shades trilogy has been nothing short of a whirlwind; moms everywhere feel like they are on a fantastic, erotic ride and never want to get off. We watch women of all ages from all over the country screaming for more, all hopeful that the story of Ana and Christian is just beginning. What started as the subject of whispered gossip between ladies has turned into the “it” book of the year—and its success and popularity is on an
upward
spiral. It has evolved into an absolute worldwide sensation.
Fifty Shades of Grey
has, without a doubt, tied women together—no pun intended.

The fans of the series have been the engine. The success of these novels has proven the power and effectiveness of women’s voices, of women’s interest in fetish, of what
women
want to see in the world of literature and in the world of romance! We celebrate our collective, bright inner light that won’t be dimmed. We celebrate motherhood and our evolution from the sandbox to the Red Room of Pain. We celebrate E. L. James
for reconnecting women with an aspect of their sexuality—a flame—that they may have left unattended. We celebrate
Fifty Shades of Fabulyssness!

Women everywhere are turning their shy, giggly whispers into full, loud, and powerful expression, making their sexuality something to be nurtured and accepted rather than hidden and saved for “appropriate” times. The books have inevitably gotten
some
kind of reaction from every woman who has read them; even the women I have spoken to who say they would not engage in such sexual behavior
cannot
put the books down. Women cannot help but discuss specific parts of the book with one another, turning their reserved, “Would
you
ever do that?” conversations into free, open, matter-of-fact discussions—and that’s the way it
should
be. As I always say to everyone, even my mom, “Everyone is reading them, everyone
should
be reading them, and there is nothing
wrong
with reading them.”

Time
magazine nominated E. L. James as one of 2012’s “100 Most Influential People in the World.” This happily married mother followed her dreams and in doing so became one of the most talked-about authors—and women—of the year.
Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker
, and
Fifty Shades Freed
went “viral,” so to speak, putting ladies everywhere into a perpetual orgasmic coma! While breathlessly turning pages, we tuned out the world, escaped reality, and tapped into a typically forbidden world of sexual intensity. Women’s conversations have been consumed by this modern-day love story; our voices have been loud and our voices have been
heard—
Random House and Universal Studios are hearing us loud and clear! People who call the novels “mommy porn” simply have not yet fallen under the spell of Christian Grey. But they will. I’m sure of that.

ARIELLE LOREN

Y
ANKING. SPANKING. Dominating. Submitting. Orgasms. Shaking. Pleasure. Strokes. Moans. Screams. Control. Release
.

The sex scenes in
Fifty Shades of Grey
have penetrated the imaginations of women across the world, challenging them to explore their sexual curiosities.

Anastasia “Ana” Steele is every woman, kind of. She’s strong, yet vulnerable. She’s smart, yet still learning. She’s independent, yet dependent. But she’s also different from me. We’re both young. We’re both sexually adventurous. We’re both stubborn in relationships. However, she’s pale, brunette, and beautiful. I’m caramel brown, kinky-haired, and gorgeous. We both have our own sex appeal, but her image sells to a wider audience.

Beyond urban and black genres, multifaceted stories of black sexualities have barely penetrated the fiction publishing market. It’s difficult to attract nonurban or nonblack readers to the most frequent narratives of black American sex lives for a variety of
reasons, but it’s primarily due to the cultural specificity of the stories that are currently available.

There are two recurring scenarios in black and urban erotica. However, these common plots have made books successful in their own right without the mainstream nod. First, there’s the story of the classic urban vixen who physically resembles a contemporary hip-hop video girl. She’s usually participating in male pleasure–centered sexual intercourse, halfway getting her needs met and having to pleasure herself. Meanwhile, she’s constantly in danger due to her sexual relationship with a drama-ridden rapper or drug-dealing man.

On the flipside, there’s the Christian-centered story line in which the black female protagonist deals with the guilt trips of the Black Church. If she’s single, she’s experiencing the too common reality of black women being ashamed of satisfying their sexual needs outside of marriage due to their Christian beliefs. If she’s married, she’s either going through a lack of sexual fulfillment due to a cheating male spouse or having an affair herself.

The cultural specificity of these frequent fiction narratives of black female sexualities makes it more difficult for these books to cross over and gain recognition outside of the black and urban book markets. Authors like Zane and Eric Jerome Dickey have experienced wider audiences and longevity in terms of their careers, but that’s because they’ve stepped outside of those story lines. Yes, authors like Noire and Kimberla Lawson Roby, whose books have plots similar to the ones listed above, have experienced popularity as well, but their popularity has been more limited to the urban and black publishing markets.

In general, it’s rare to read about the diversity of black female sexual pleasure in literary works and mainstream media. When conversations do occur or books are written and published, they usually end up as a slight remix of the story lines listed above, even in black and urban erotica. There are few stories of black participants in pleasure lifestyles such as kink and BDSM
that get any mass literary traction or media attention. Thus, it’s not unexpected that most Americans would expect and easily imagine the main characters in book like
Fifty Shades
—a book that includes BDSM—as white.

A black Ana would require the acknowledgment that black women are into more than just vanilla sex and plain-Jane desire. While the stories of black women’s diverse sexualities are limited in mainstream media, some like handcuffs, bondage, a bit of spanking, dominating sex talk, and submitting to their partners. Others might prefer to stay in control in the bedroom, dictating the actions of their lovers and guiding their every move. Or they might prefer something entirely different. That’s the beauty of being human.

On paper, many black women are Ana. They’re college-educated, career-driven, self-sufficient, and independent. Thanks to Michelle Obama and other intelligent, ambitious black women shining in mainstream media, very few would blink twice at the idea of a black Ana in terms of academic profile and social class. It’s the sexual nature of her character that would give many people pause, as black women aren’t known for doing
those
types of things or exploring certain approaches to pleasure.

Additionally, what about the controlling, yet oh so sexy, Christian Grey? Would a reader believe a young (white) American billionaire is sexually attracted to a black woman? Or even more brain twisting, could a young American billionaire be black?

While there are plenty of white men and black women in interracial relationships, there aren’t any young black male billionaires even in the age of President Barack Obama. The white Christian Grey has Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg as a real-life billionaire reference. A black Christian would be a total product of the imagination, which could be problematic for mass book sales, particularly outside of the black and urban publishing markets.

Part of what sells books is the balance between imagination and believability. Could two black characters, one with a
believable social class and the other rich beyond the imagination, engage in kinky sex and have it appeal to the world? Would a black Ana make white American and British women fawning over
Fifty Shades of Grey
feel the same inspiration to explore and express their desires? Would a black Mr. Grey still make the majority of female readers moist down there and ready to get on their knees in a play dungeon?

Arguably, the whiteness of
Fifty Shades of Grey
was necessary for mainstream success, as the imaginations of many readers aren’t prepared to embrace a black version of the book. Not to mention, many white writers are petrified to bring characters to life that don’t look anything like them, so it would’ve been daring for E. L. James to describe her characters as brown.

Truth be told, there is a double standard when it comes to the appeal of brown bodies having mind-blowing sex versus white ones. For a society that’s supposed to be “postracial” or able to see past color,
Fifty Shades of Grey
is just another reminder that there’s much work to be done in order for us to really see ourselves in each other.

Black couples yank, spank, dominate, submit, orgasm, shake, please, stroke, moan, scream, control, and release in bedrooms and play in dungeons as well. With a bit of extra curiosity, mainstream readers would find that sex is a universal experience and how we do it isn’t limited by race but rather personal interest.

We need more sex stories of characters that look different than Ana and Grey. We need more sex narratives by black women, because there is power in the variety of black women’s desires, and it’s important that they tell their many sex stories, too. And we need more examples of high-achieving black men to put to rest the stereotype of a young American billionaire automatically being white. Achieving this diversity doesn’t have to be an “Affirmative Action” style initiative, but rather something that stems from our creative values as diverse erotica fans and readers.