Beyond surprise, the series’ success has generated a good deal of alarm, as the book glorifies a sado-masochistic relationship containing rape and sexual violence against women. The series’ popularity testifies to something quite at odds with the traditional Christian vision of love and sexuality. While these concerns are well-founded, there’s another dimension of the phenomenon to consider: What accounts for the series’ sudden popularity? If Fr. Smith, the titular character in the Bruce Marshall novel, is right that “the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God,” what are fans of the Fifty Shades series seeking?
One answer is that there’s a hunger that’s not being satisfied: Namely, for men who are unabashedly masculine, who aren’t afraid to take control, and to lead. That is, there’s a longing (even a lusting) for men who aren’t afraid of what’s classically been called “headship.” To this end, while Fifty Shades subverts Christian sexual morality, it subverts the modern crusade for “genderlessness” all the more.I have to say, this is a reversal of the process I grew up with, whereby the Tridentine Mass, scratchy uniforms, and mean nuns with rulers awakened fantasies of dominance and submission, not the other way around.
(Give Heschmeyer retro credit, though: It's been a long time since I saw someone cite Free to Be... You and Me as anti-masculine propaganda.)
"while Fifty Shades subverts Christian sexual morality, it subverts the modern crusade for “genderlessness” all the more."
ReplyDeleteThis is great news for Catholics; watch porn and help crush modern secular trends. Well played God, what a brilliant plan.
The series’ popularity testifies to something quite at odds with the traditional Christian vision of love and sexuality.Yeah, in the good old days, the rape and sexual violence against women was entirely non-consensual.
ReplyDeleteThat is, there’s a longing (even a lusting) for men who aren’t afraid of what’s classically been called “headship.”See? Traditional Christians who promoted rape and sexual violence against women were on to something. If only feminists would stop denying that.
i am glad a conservative catholic publication is weighing in on the issue of sexual violence now, rather than let it be covered up for decades.
ReplyDeleteThat "one answer" is always the answer.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if communion wafers came in flavors other than vanilla...
ReplyDelete"Crush" and "porn" are two words which should not be in the same sentence together.
ReplyDeleteIf Fr. Smith, the titular character in the Bruce Marshall novel, is
ReplyDeleteright that “the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is
unconsciously looking for God,” what are fans of the Fifty Shades series seeking?
It's almost sad, really. Can we expect Heschmeyer to realize maybe a lady reads to be entertained instead of to find God, when he can't even imagine a kid getting laid to get laid instead of to find God? Once again we're spending time with an asshole who can't grasp that other people are different.
Well anyway, some 1955 prototype of Heschmeyer was angrily demanding, "But what does this Elvis Presley want?" Sigh.
It IS fun, though, that he imagines human behavior is about the same as a computer program written in BASIC. "If... Then... Goto." Reading him is like reading bad sci-fi about an android struggling to understand humanity. "Interesting concept, Mr. President, but this 'lust' -- it is most illogical."
I saw the movie last night at a press screening (my significant otter is a member of the Liberal Media Elite; Entertainment Division). The audience liked it (or so the studio rep told me afterwards), even if there was a lot of laughter at things that weren't supposed to be funny.
ReplyDeleteI found it slow, pedestrian and lacking anything that resembled any kind of real dom/sub relationship (AFAIK). It's more of a Harlequin Romance take on what a dominant/submissive relationship might be like. No surprise from a movie that began life as Twilight fanfic.
There's plenty of nudity which, along with the "kinky" stuff (pretty tame actually, maybe the book's more explicit?), will keep the Puritans excited. No surprise from people who get the vapors over a movie that began life as Twilight fanfic.
Heh, "headship."
ReplyDeleteHis submissive desires are clearly articulated.Elvis Presley just wants to be your Teddy Bear: "I Just wanna be, your Teddy Bear, put a chain around my neckand lead me anywhere." #FiftyShadesofHoundDog
ReplyDeleteThe young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God
ReplyDeleteIt follows that the young man who turns up for communion is really after a quick blowjob, so I don't know why there was all that fuss with the shouting and the restraining order.
No you're right, "porn" and "subvert" work much better.
ReplyDeleteHoo boy another man telling dumb wimminz what they really want
ReplyDelete"Indeed, “women’s happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to
ReplyDeletemen” over the last thirty-five years, the very years in which the gender
war was being waged on their behalf."
This notion, that the "gender war" was being waged on their "behalf" is pretty precious. Why, it's almost as if women were quite happy with their lot in life, thank you very much, until butch, man-hating lesbians and pussified liberal male academics wearing petticoats came along and dragged them kicking and screaming into a modern hellscape where they might find more job and educational choices and men who might be inclined to help out a little with child rearing. Joe Heschmeyer, meet Patrick Howley. I'm sure you two kids will have a lot to talk about.
The series’ popularity testifies to something quite at odds with the traditional Christian vision of love and sexuality.
ReplyDeleteBut not at odds with the traditional Christian vision of Passion.
"Eponymous" went on vacation, so he had to think fast.
ReplyDeletethe book glorifies a sado-masochistic relationship containing rape and sexual violence against women
ReplyDeleteI know. That part really sucks. i prefer the part where the world goes up in flames and the molten eyeballs dribble out the sockets of sinners.
while Fifty Shades subverts Christian sexual morality, it subverts the modern crusade for “genderlessness” all the more.
ReplyDeleteSo Christian sexual morality wins! It's the less subverted by! Christian sexual morality loves the fuck out of dudes with those little whips and things, as long as they're real men, or at least titular characters.
The man who rings the bell at the brothel is a fucking ace.
ReplyDelete"Indeed, “women’s happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to
ReplyDeletemen” over the last thirty-five years,
Wow. She's stuck with him for a long time.
It's one for the money, two for the show
ReplyDeletenine across the ass
Hey! Watch my lower back, fuckface.
the book glorifies a sado-masochistic relationship containing rape and sexual violence against women
ReplyDeleteOh sure, in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Judges, Deuteronomy, Samuel...
But at 6 o'clock every morning? Lay off the calls to worship, dude, some of us neighbours like to sleep in.
ReplyDeletePlease step on my blue suede shoes. Mistress.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering what Mr. Heschmeyer has to say about a sado-masochistic relationship containing rape and sexual violence against women altar boys.
ReplyDeleteA titular character is a cardinal priest assigned to one of the Roman titular churches. HTH.
ReplyDelete50 Shades of Yahweh.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I don't really care about bondage or kink or whatever it supposedly says that erotica is now popular - or, more accurately, that we're now acknowledging that erotica is popular. The fact that all these conservative dipshits are trying to draw an entire picture from a single dot isn't exactly new either, and the degree of misogyny at play is at best marginally higher than it normally is.
ReplyDeleteHere's what does bother me; I can spend half a year writing a story, another half a year rewriting it into something that can conceivably sell, read a few dozen books on craft and business, send out hundreds of query letters employing every cynical, calculated trick in the book...and I'll still never be a fraction as successful as someone who writes lines like “His voice is warm and husky like dark melted chocolate fudge caramel… or something.”
And that's why me and my 2.5% request rate are going to be drinking this weekend.
I was going to say isn't he basically arguing that the heroine, whats-her-name, is St. Theresa?
ReplyDeleteA big hunk o' love...needs extra lube.
ReplyDeleteI think that First Things would advise you to let go and let god. In other words: don't write for money, but write where the money is. If people like their sex and food metaphors well mixed, who are you to deny them?
ReplyDeleteThe desk clerk's dressed in black... leather.
ReplyDeleteNow Bethany, the nice man and his book are the product of decades of thinking about all these things and all the decades of thinking about these things says you are wrong and the nice man and his book are correct. So please, understand the nice man and his book know you better than you know you so please, no more potty mouth and heed the nice man and his book and all those decades of thinking about you. Because he is, you know. A nice man. And thinking about things for you. While holding a book.
ReplyDeleteOh! oh! Oooooooh...Thou art God!!
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's what he's looking for, alright...
Everybody in the whole cell block
ReplyDeletegave headship to the jailhouse rock.
That's silly. Everyone knows petticoats look terrible with elbow-patch jackets.
ReplyDelete“His voice is warm and husky like dark melted chocolate fudge caramel… or something"
ReplyDeleteA bowl of high-bran porridge.
Needs work.
How was Rod to know that the church went bankrupt 5 years ago and is now a different business with a different owner?
ReplyDeleteMean nuns with rulers, come spank this man!
ReplyDelete~
If you can't find a partner, use a wooden chair.
ReplyDeleteThat dude better be a Brit, because "headship" ain't no word in American English.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a lame version of Secretary.
ReplyDeleteSpeak for yourself.
ReplyDeleteI take it you deep fry the turkey.
ReplyDeleteShifty Henry said to Bugs, "Where’d
ReplyDeleteyou get that mask?
I’ve been wanting one of those but was afraid to
ask”
Bugsy turned to Shifty and he said, "In seminary.”
Then he stepped on my balls until I passed out.
(I know I'm going to regret not having read all the 63 currently-existing comments here first, but--)
ReplyDelete"That is, there’s a longing (even a lusting) for men who aren’t afraid of what’s classically been called 'headship.'"
Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
--but not yet. Let me put them on first.
ReplyDeleteJesus-fuck - like that! Oh, god! Oh my goddddddd! Don't stop...! et many a cetera. Well played, indeed.
ReplyDeleteIs there a term like "self-refuting" to describe something that's both setup and its own punchline?
ReplyDelete9.5 Wks.?
ReplyDeletePlease. I'm begging you, Sister, you've no idea how naughty I've been.
ReplyDeleteIf Fr. Smith, the titular character in the Bruce Marshall novel, is
ReplyDeleteright that “the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is
unconsciously looking for God,” what are fans of the Fifty Shades series seeking?
Who said anything about "unconsciously"?
YOUNG MAN: Is God here?
MADAM: Nope. Sorry, kid.
YM: Oh. Well, I tried. (beat) Mind if I come in?
Hmmm - whatever could Bernini have had in mind, I ask you?
ReplyDeleteThe '80s: The Mickey Rourke Decade.
ReplyDeletehttp://38.media.tumblr.com/43a69bdb3baefda0c911ecfd8c8655ec/tumblr_n65lgjdiMH1txj8weo2_500.gif
ReplyDeleteMelted fudge caramel, apparently.
ReplyDeleteLooks to me like you might have the start to that dirty book your ma's been on about you having ago at.
ReplyDeleteI thought St. Teresa was the patron saint of heroin.
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/hbAeTywPiP4?t=25s
yar, that was it.
ReplyDeleteBest comment of the day!
ReplyDeleteDoes she have any specific requests? Yetis or dildo-guns?
ReplyDeleteOr maybe just getting lost in a story. I don't believe in god or satan, but I've enjoyed a lot of Stephen King novels where one version or another of both usually figures prominently. Same with vampires and weres, but--up until Obsidian Butterfly--Hamilton's Anita Blake novels were a guilty pleasure. Until the supernatural smegma git a little too deep, anyway...
ReplyDeleteEverybody's wearing them at Wendy's. I think you may have missed that scene.
ReplyDeleteThat mental image will keep me entertained at the next faculty meeting.
ReplyDeleteCan you believe I've never inquired?
ReplyDelete"Go and sin no more unless you really can't help yourself."
ReplyDeletesupernatural smegma
ReplyDeleteDr. Bronner's is good for that.
Depends on what day he went up there?
ReplyDeleteIf the trailer is Grokking, don't come knocking.
ReplyDeleteThey really can't help conflating "authoritarian" with "masculine". They talk about a "crisis of masculinity" when they really mean a breakdown of a rigid authoritarian structure.
ReplyDeleteThe breakdown of that authoritarian structure is due to some serious fuckups by those in authority.
Why fight it? It's time to start writing dubious consent gay dinosaur porn.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that I find hilarious is that the book (and the movie) that Heschmeyer finds so... umm... engrossing, has been rendered completely pointless thanks to the availability of free internet porn.
ReplyDeleteSo I hear...
Is a dildo gun a dildo that's shaped like a gun, a gun that's shaped like a dildo, or a gun that fires dildos?
ReplyDeletetell me more about your otter...
ReplyDeleteThe books apparently started off as "Twilight" fanfic, which probably explains why they are so divergent from "responsible" BDSM.
ReplyDeleteHeschmayer's extolling of Manly Men of Manhood covers "hunger", "control" and *ahem* "headship". Yes, it is always projection with these people. In this case, sexy projection!
ReplyDeleteEveryone knows petticoats look terrible with elbow-patch jackets.Hey!
ReplyDeleteOT, it's nice to see you here again, Beth.
ReplyDeleteA gun shaped like a dildo that shoots dildos shaped like guns.
ReplyDeleteCome on, do you love your mother or not?
ReplyDeleteditto.
ReplyDeleteHeh, yeah, surely everyone must know that.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, I need to go return some purchases to the store.
The books are pretty damn explicit. Spoiler alert, at the end of the series it's strongly implied Christian Grey gives his fetal daughter an orgasm.
ReplyDeleteSounds like they stake it through the heart after performing an exorcism, but both attempts fail.
ReplyDeleteWhatever, the important thing is that its dildos all the way down.
ReplyDeleteIs this before or after you put the stuffing in?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the 80's there was a vogue for absolutely horrific soft core romance novels for women with names like "Sweet Savage Love" and etc... which were all based around pretty savage rapes by the romantic lead of the heroine. Maybe the late seventies. Very, very, disturbing but extremely popular.
ReplyDeleteThe pacing is wonderful. Send pages fast.
ReplyDeleteFree to Be... You and Me? That's nothing compared to the real menace to our siciety: Peyton Place !
ReplyDeleteAn apt description of the GOP!
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, the Johanna Lindsey oeuvre. Er, or so I've been told.
ReplyDelete“His voice is warm and husky like dark melted chocolate fudge caramel… or something.”
ReplyDeleteThis could make good copy for a Ben & Jerry's carton, but I can only imagine it would cloy at book length.
When I first heard about the 50 Shades phenom, I tried to talk one of my friends into working with me on a parody.
ReplyDeleteThen I actually looked in the book. Main character name: Anastasia Steele. I called her back. "It can't be done. The book itself is parody."
Oh, well, she's very significant. What she lacks in the 'opening mollusks with her bare-paws' dept., she more than makes up in thinking I'm great. Poor deluded girl.
ReplyDeleteYet those fascist doctors won't let Anastasia have a postcoital smoke while she's pregnant.
ReplyDeleteThat's "Dr. Noisewater" to you.
ReplyDeleteYou rang?
ReplyDeleteYetis with dildo guns.
ReplyDelete"Bosom-rippers!" Ug! I loathed them. My sisters loved them tho they called the books "Disgusters". "Got any new disgusters?" they'd ask one another. Older sis gave me a stack of them to cheer me up, and it DID cheer me to toss them in the garbage can. Not that I dislike soft-porn (Judith Krantz) but these women gettin' raped and likin' it made me sick.
ReplyDeleteBut at least those women had adventures and the structure of the books was (essentially) the taming of the worlds most valuable pet/wild animal: a prize male. The women always ended up in control, happy, nonrapeable. It was some kind of twisted heroes journey for them. Also one of the only books that girls could buy that told you about sex.
ReplyDeleteGet your filthy minds out of the gutter, youse; it wasn't like that with St Teresa at all. See, she was only in ecstasy like that because she got penetrated forcefully by this big long hard thing... um, wait.
ReplyDelete[In lieu of applause, enthusiastic clicking of a pre-Vatican II parochial-schoolteaching nun's tin cricket.]
ReplyDelete... versus dildos with yeti guns.
ReplyDeleteI see it comes with a detachable thirty million round clip.
ReplyDeleteSo I understand, but I didn't know there was anything BSDMy in Twilight.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I did think the idea of a centuries-old vampire enrolling in a high school and dating someone a fraction of his age was regrettably like the incident where a child molester in his 30s managed to enroll in school in order to have his choice of victims.
Oh ick.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's even kinkier than the Batman Squirt Gun.
ReplyDeleteIt's the chestnuts that bring it to life.
ReplyDeleteThat's some serious retromission.
ReplyDeleteI dated a nun once, but I had to break it off. She could never be more than a sister to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'll be here all week.
I tried to read the first book. I gave up after 100 pages or so. But it did answer some critical questions:
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to make sex boring to the point of inducing coma? Yes.
Is it possible to get a lucrative book contract without having mastered the essentials of English? Yes.
Can you convince the average reader that a bunch of unrelated words parked next to one another in a line constitute a sentence? Yes.
Feh.
It's great to be here. :D
ReplyDeleteIt would be easier to get lost in it if it were well-written. I guess about the only thing that can overcome shitty writing is Hawt Secks. The shittier the writing, the Hawter the Secks has to be.
ReplyDeleteI think the term you're looking for is "self-refudiating" and it describes Sarah Palin
ReplyDeleteTwilight = Billy Madison? that was the subtext of Billy Madison wasn't it? I ask merely for information
ReplyDeleteI never even really tried to read one of them...closest I ever got was one of Judith Krantz' books, which left me thinking, even as a 17 year old, "what a waste of time." But one of my friends' moms read them all in succession; we used to thumb through them from time to time to make fun of them. There was one where the headstrong daughter of a South Carolina slaveowner got kidnapped by pirates; lucky for her the head pirate was a hunky he-man with excellent taste in interior decorating who commanded a ship with a greenhouse aboard (the only possible explanation for the freshly-cut yellow roses he had sent to her cabin every day while sailing the high seas).
ReplyDeleteLike with 50 Shades, you can't parody something that's already a parody.
the book glorifies a sado-masochistic relationship containing rape and sexual violence against women
ReplyDelete"I dreamed I saw Ayn Rand last night
Alive as you and me
'Three decades dead you are!' I said
'I never died,' said she
'I never died,' said she"
"Bodice-rippers"
ReplyDeleteBreast-rippers were a form of torture used by Christians on women who had abortions, committed adultery, blasphemy, witchcraft etc.
TRIGGER WARNING!
"The Breast Ripper was often used heated during torture and it contained
four claws, which were used to slowly rip the breasts from women for
various crimes.[3]
The instrument would be imposed onto a single breast of the woman. They
were designed to shred, or tear off the breasts of the victim. If the
woman did not die, she would be horribly disfigured for the rest of her
life.[6][2][5]"
Non-consensual sex (sometimes abbreviated to non-con) is big in written fanfic (and very big in written erotica) precisely because it doesn't involve real people acting out what is essentially rape; a lot of erotic comics are non-con, for the same reason. It's related to slashfic (and similarly is often used in slashfic) in that it scratches an itch that won't be satisfied by quote-endquote professional art, although 50SoG has kind of blurred the line between what's professional and fanfic, one of the reasons why a lot of BDSM people object to it being so prominent.
ReplyDeleteDUDE,
ReplyDelete"Get thee behind me, Satan--oh yeah, just like that."
ReplyDeleteUh... these books are popular because they are fantasies. Like the people who love Tolkien's Hobbits are not themselves peasants living under feudal control.
ReplyDeleteWomen have emerged (not totally!) from under the control of the patriarchy, only to be tossed into the maelstrom of the capitalist system, having to make choices, carry the burdens of living up to (male-imposed) images of perfection etc ,while still being faced with sexist discrimination and obstacles placed only in their path.
It's nice to fantasize about handing over control to someone who takes all the responsibility- while you are still actually the one in control.
Like they say that the patrons of those dungeon mistresses are mostly middle-aged males who just want to say "fuck it, I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy the ride, and let someone else make all the decisions- for the next hour."
Man, that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark never gets old.
ReplyDelete"Sexual symbolism in religious art, you say?
ReplyDelete"I have no idea what you're talking about."
It is fun how the author manages to make everything about god. I a ma database programmer by trade, and an avid bicyclist, and yet, I realize that others may not share my profession and interests. For example, the statements: "The young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for a good deal on a 55 cm titanium framed road bike" or "The young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for the best way to join tables on a field that has data stored as a character data type in one table and data stored as packed decimal in the other" sounds freaking brain damaged.
ReplyDeleteLast I heard, certain people being at the boys were part of that problem...
ReplyDeleteOne wonders how many young American women have gone into their first sexual encounter thinking, "wait a minute....that feels nothing like 'velvet-wrapped steel'!"
ReplyDeleteMy best woman friend loves Amish romance novels. They're so prudish, they're hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling I remember that one.
ReplyDeleteAlso: its bodice rippers. Bosom rippers is the Werewolf version.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty much the point where I bailed on Hamilton. Obsidian Butterfly was, I thought, her best, with the relationship between Anita and the psycho hitman taking up more of the story. Then she decided, fuck all that, back to vamps and weres fucking! and I went elsewhere. It's not that she couldn't put one word after the other in a pleasing manner, it was just all the wrong words...
ReplyDeleteYou gotta see her toes, too; Bernini has carved them all curled up like those of a Don Martin character.
ReplyDeleteI stared too long into the Abbess and SHUT UP SMUT
ReplyDeleteReasons to look for God in a brothel (Christian edition):
ReplyDelete1. To heal venereal diseases.
2. To call your peter "the rock."
3. To part the wet sheets.
4. To sit on His right hand.
You saw me crying in the dungeon, the tears I shed were tears of joy, I know the meaning of contentment, now that I'm a submissive boy.
ReplyDeleteTurn around! Go back!
ReplyDeleteWTF?! OK, that's weird in more than a few ways.
ReplyDeleteAnd a 1952 Ford Country Sedan Station Wagon.
ReplyDeleteStrangely thinking of a woodie?
I set 'em up, y'all knock 'em down...
ReplyDeleteYou rang?
ReplyDelete$1 to M. Krebs.
I saw the same thing at a Walmart in Maine last summer. It was interesting to say the least.
ReplyDelete:stare:
ReplyDelete