Fifty Shades of Grey

When you think of porn, what images come to mind? Okay, I could have phrased that better. I don’t mean pornographic images. I mean who do you imagine watching or reading porn and where do they get it? Don’t you think of dirty old men or curious teenage boys? Don’t you envision the dark recesses of the internet or slimy book stores on back streets?

Not any more. Now porn is sold at Barnes and Noble and to women, even little old ladies. Fifty Shades of Grey is a trilogy containing not just sex but S and M. The “Fifty Shades” books have sold 15 million copies in three months, evenly split between e-readers and paperback as the novels jumped the barrier from the cyber-equivalent of plain brown wrapper to prominent display at your local bookstore. To put this in context, the publisher, Vintage, says it took three years to sell that many copies of the “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” series. The Tattoo series was one of the most popular series of novels ever, until now.




You might think that if little old ladies are reading it, it can’t be that racy. And lots of the ladies say they “skim over the sex” and just read the story. That reminds me of saying we bought Playboy for the articles. Consider this, the company that bought the movie rights (yea, a movie is next) is concerned that they will not be able preserve the story line and take out enough of the sex to get an R rating instead of the NC-17 rating which the material deserves. 


Another slant is that though the male character “Christian” (yea, Christian isn’t that great) starts off a damaged, domineering male,  his girl makes him a better man by the end of the third book. In fact, by the end the girl enjoys the kinky sex as much as he does. She is just in control. (No I’m not that familiar with the story. Just google it and you will find out more than you want to know.) 


Well, if women are reading this stuff can it be that bad. Isn’t it just a harmless diversion? Who gets hurt?  Let me just tell you a couple of things. One woman admitted she was so addicted to the books that she was avoiding her basic family duties. The sale of other similar material is now greatly on the rise. Porn is addicting. 


Several women said, they don’t mind reading about the rough sex detailed in the book, they would never do it. So guys, if you are thinking about spicing up your sex life by gifting your woman with a copy of the books, think again. Porn is fantasy and tends to replace the real marital relationship, not enhance it. No real person can live up to the “standards” of fiction.  Porn makes “normal” loving relationships seem boring.


So girls. Up to now we haven’t been willing to talk about the problem of porn. As long as it was “limited” to the internet, we could minimize the problem. Well, it’s at your favorite book store, Amazon.com, and in your best friend’s purse. What do you think about it now?


Pick up a good book for your summer reading. Even better, pick up The Good Book.


Be blessed.


Nick