So has anyone read Fifty Shades of Grey? If so, what did you think of it, and can you relate it to Cixous? If no one has read it in this class, what do you think of Jo-Jo and Regan getting the female intern to read the book instead of reading it themselves? Have you ever avoided reading a book or watching a movie because you thought it wasn’t intended for you (and I’m not just talking about gender)?
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Cixous – Fifty Shades of Grey
I can’t go a day without hearing about Fifty Shades of Grey. I hear about it on the radio; Saturday Night Live did a skit on it (for those of you who haven't seen it; check it out below: it's hilarious); and my coworker can’t stop talking about it. While I haven’t read this book—and don’t plan on reading it anytime soon—it makes me think of our discussion on The Laugh of Medusa by Cixous and gender in writing. This book is definitely geared toward women. Jo-Jo and Regan from 106.5 even describe it as “mommy porn” and even had their female intern read the book so they could get the proper female perspective.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I haven’t read Fifty Shades of Grey yet, but I have ordered it online (the book hasn’t arrived even though I ordered it over a month ago, I’m assuming someone stole it). I got caught up in all the hype about it despite the fact that I’m not interested in reading about BDSM. This has happened to me before, several times. First with Twilight, then with The Hunger Games, and I’m currently reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series. I can’t help but get caught up in literary phenomenon even if it is wayyy outside my interest ranges. I heard Billy Bush talking about Fifty Shades of Grey on his radio show and he said he couldn’t finish reading it because he didn’t like the male protagonist, Christian Grey. He sounded disgusted that he even read part of it. I think a lot of the things that are hyped up in the media are driven by young/teenaged girls, e.g. Justin Bieber, Twilight, “High School Musical”, and other fads. I have avoided watching movies that have target audiences for the most part because I don’t want to participate in some passing trend. However, books always get me because I’m a curious reader and I’m interested in dissecting the writing style of super popular authors, even when I fall outside the intended audience. The best example I can think of is the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. I was fascinated by how many kids loved it, and I caved in and read one of the books my little sister was reading to see what all the hype was about. It was pretty funny. In terms of Fifty Shades of Grey, I think it transcends gendered writing, though it has a mostly female audience, because it is affecting men (there are reports that the book is revitalizing the sex lives of married couples), the book industry, and even the movie industry (the movie rights sold for $6.5 million dollars). The book is generating so much buzz and making so much profit, to reduce it to some gender divide is simply ludicrous.
ReplyDeleteAll I know about "Fifty Shades of Gray" is that it's a "Twilight" fan fic that got turned into a novel, and features a lot of BDSM. That's all I know. That and I have no plans to read it.
ReplyDeleteI will get caught up in media hype sometimes, mostly just to see for myself what all the fuss is about. I did that with "Harry Potter", "Twilight", "Hunger Games", and a couple other book series.
Of those book series above? I think Cixous would like "Hunger Games" the most. It features a strong female protagonist named Katniss who doesn't rely on a man to protect her. There's no love story (the one in the trilogy is a fairly well-staged fabrication), there's no knight in shining armor to save the day, there's no "...and they lived happily ever after." It's about a girl who takes matters into her own hands and starts a government rebellion.
I think she'd even like "Harry Potter". True, the novel is about a boy, but his best friend Hermione and his girlfriend Ginny are tough, smart, self-rescuing princesses. All three characters--Katniss, Hermione, and Ginny--are really good role models for young girls. (Not that I recommend taking down the government nor battling a dark wizard...)
Both book series are written by women, geared towards a general audience; they aren't "women writing for women" books. But I also don't believe that having strong female protagonist in the books were accidental, either.
There's there's "Twilight", which I'm pretty sure Cixous would rip to shreds. Compared to "Hunger Games", it's a huge step backwards for young women.
I agree. I think Cixous would love Hunger Games. She'd probably also be a fan of Hermione. There are a lot of strong female characters in Harry Potter actually.
Delete