General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why are Women Devouring Fifty Shades of Grey? [View all]antigone382
(3,682 posts)And you certainly can discover a lot about culture from examining such things...quite possibly, the popularity of powerless heroines and their powerful and dangerous male lovers among certain segments of the female population--and the revulsion towards those same stories by other segments of the female population--raises important points about both human diversity and the possibility that our romantic and sexual fantasies are influenced very heavily by our social environments.
I question the messages these books send to women about relationships, and I consider them a product of a culture that does not provide healthy models for any gender, but I don't roll my eyes at Twilight or 50 Shades out of some sense of feminist duty. I just find them silly and unappealing. I can't relate to the heroines in the story, and I'm not drawn to the heroes. They don't do it for me.