A Feminist Reading of 50 Shades

Via

I realize that teachers are not supposed to have favorite students; however, let's be honest, that is somewhat of an impossibility. The other day, a group of my favorite little sophomore girls, who were in my freshman class last year, ran into my room giggling.

"Okay, what's so funny?" I asked them.

After a moment of silence, the girls sheepishly revealed their newly acquired library copies of Fifty Shades of Grey. Seeing as I have read this book (and would not want my fifteen-year-old daughter reading it), it took every ounce of my overly opinionated being not to immediately launch into a tirade about why they should not be reading these books. Honestly, it is not even the sexual content of the books that bothers me, but, rather, it is the demeaning and disempowered depiction of the main female character who completely subsumes herself to the (older) man she falls in love with. Not exactly a role model generating novel.

Determined to make this a teachable moment, I asked the girls about the female character in the novel and we talked at length about why the author chose to paint her in this light.

What I found was pleasantly surprising. Perhaps the push for gender reform and equality has made (some) strides--despite the widespread exploitation of women's bodies and labor worldwide. The girls all felt that there were major problems with the way the author developed her female character and they were actually endlessly critical. They said that the books were just fun, guilty pleasures. Hmm...I guess it might be hypocritical to call them out on that...

I can only hope that someday, if I have a daughter, she will be just the right combination of critical, questioning, analytical--with a touch of rebellion. While I hope that her rebellion will be more along the lines of skipping school to see a new art exhibit at the Met, I suppose that if it involves sneaking off to the library to obtain a copy of 50 Shades of Grey, I can live with that. As long as she conducts a feminist critique of the novel as she reads it.