This is the central tension of the books: Ana loves Christian, but she doesn’t want to be his submissive Christian loves Ana, but he’s turned on by violent sex.Īs several experienced BDSM practitioners emphasized to me, there are healthy, ethical ways to consensually combine sex and pain. Early on in the first book, Ana discovers that Christian has a “dark secret”: He’s obsessed with BDSM-a condensed abbreviation for bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism. Theirs is a romance full of drama and passion, and they end up living the conventional American fantasy: love, marriage, and a kid. Anastasia Steele, a middle-class senior at Washington State University at Vancouver, meets Christian Grey, an incredibly handsome, debonair 27-year-old multi-millionaire CEO. Early reports say the movie shows at least 20 full minutes of sex, although it’s only rated R.

When the movie comes out, the Fifty Shades version of hot, kinky sex will become explicit and precise, no longer dependent upon the imaginations of readers. Yes, the story will likely reach an even larger audience, but more important, it will be told in a new, visual form. Trailers for the movie adaptation of the first book have been viewed 250 million times, according to an ad aired in early February it’s expected to gross at least $60 million at the box office in its opening weekend.Īnd that means the Fifty Shades fantasy is about to become all the more influential. Since Random House bought the rights to the trilogy in 2012, the series has sold well more than 100 million copies worldwide. Love it or despise it, American culture’s sexual fantasy of the moment is Fifty Shades of Grey. In culture, fantasy works like a mirror: It reflects who we are, but it also shapes what we become.

What is a fantasy? From Freud to Ludacris, it’s been an elusive idea, suggesting both an escape from reality and an expression of hidden desire.

Contract in fifty shades of grey