Talk given at Science Museum Lates, 25 Feb 2015

1. Tawdry, Trashy and a Turn-on
Reader responses to Fifty Shades
Dr Ruth Deller, Sheffield Hallam University (@ruthdeller, r.a.deller@shu.ac.uk)
Professor Clarissa Smith, Sunderland University
researching50shades.co.uk

2. Sexualities journal
16 (8)
December 2013
http://sexualities.sagepub.com.lcproxy.shu.ac.uk/content/16/8.toc

3. Why research Fifty Shades?
Our interest in the books as a phenomenon arose from our own
backgrounds as academics with an interest in studying media, sexual
cultures, gender, literature and audiences. We were fascinated not only by
the phenomenal success of the books and the way they had been discussed
in public, but also by the different questions the books and the reactions to
them raised about readership, gender and sexuality… We argue that the
‘Fifty Shades phenomenon’ offers much for us to consider as scholars of
sexuality, gender and culture. In bringing together this collection of papers,
we hope that this special issue contributes towards the public debate about
the significance of these novels and what they might ‘mean’ for the ways in
which women, in particular, publicly express and discuss sexuality.
(Deller, Harman and Jones, 2013)

5. Pre-reading and failing to read Fifty Shades of Grey
– IQ Hunter
With foolish arrogance I agreed to write this before I’d read a single page of E.L. James’s ‘mommy
porn’ trilogy. It was essentially a bet with myself. I’d researched porn and women’s cults before,
so surely I could contribute something to the debate about these massively popular yet fiercely
hated books, which my partner and her friends had shared and devoured and which, on holiday
in Tenerife, I had seen countless women of all ages reading around the swimming pool?... After
only ninety dreadful pages of the first book I knew I was in trouble. I couldn’t think of anything
worth writing about it, let alone anything scholarly and original. And I still had over four hundred
pages to go of brand-fetishism and simpering internal monologue (I certainly wouldn’t make it
through the whole trilogy)…Reading the book turned out to be an experience at once
predictable and baffling. I struggled with a weird sense of alienation from fantasies in which I felt
entirely adrift… If this was porn, it was not as I knew it…. I’d really wanted to like the book. Not
liking it, in fact not even being able initially to read it all the way through, was a limply
predictable response, even though no one I knew who had read it thought it was any good.

7. Fifty Shades of Ghey: Snark fandom and the figure of the
anti-fan – Sarah Harman and Bethan Jones
We structure this analysis of the anti-fandom's denigration of Fifty Shades
as 'bad literature', and furthermore 'bad eroticism' to be consumed by an
imagined female reader. We suggest that anti-fans position themselves not
only against and in opposition to the novels but also as superior to fans…
engagement with the trilogy happens not just through a rejection of the
text, but in fact through a close reading of and critical engagement with it,
which is performed and then shared over differing media and modes. We
further contend that in doing so Fifty Shades anti-fans position themselves
as gate-keepers, thus reinforcing their subcultural capital which in turn
enforces specific taste cultures…

8. Fifty Shades of Ghey: Snark fandom and the figure of the
anti-fan – Sarah Harman and Bethan Jones
"the physical pain you inflicted wasn't as bad as the pain of losing you" Yes!
That's why we do it! We put up with being hit to keep our men (…) OH NO
WAIT! THATS (sic) NOT BDSM, THAT'S *ABUSE* Oops! Easy mistake though,
eh? #RAGERAGERAGE @50shadesofROFL, 2012a)
Note the stereotyping: old Dommes are 'impossibly glamorous.' Old subs
are pathetic and broken. (@50myoutergodess, 2012b)

10. And yet…
[It] is not to say that we view Fifty Shades… and their sexual
content as beyond criticism, or parody. It is, however,
important to recognize the various distinctions being offered
in the different critiques, few of which acknowledged any
defensible pleasures in reading James’ works… critiques
reflect a denigration of ‘women’s genres’ and the 'chat' they
produce.
(Deller and Smith 2013: 935-6)

11. Surveying the readers
 Survey of 83 readers: 81 female, 2 male. Snowball sampling via social media.
 Mixture of quantitative and qualitative data.
 84% heterosexual/straight; 4% bisexual; 4% other (asexual, masturbate); 8% did not
disclose. None identified as gay, lesbian or queer.
 75% in a relationship; 55% married.
 Age 21-53.
 Range of occupations – many professionals.
 Most lived in the UK, one in Eire, three in the USA, one in New Zealand and one
Australia.
 24% regular romance readers; 14% regular erotica readers. 59% had read romance
before and 39% erotica.

12. Where did you first hear about Fifty Shades?
 Facebook (23%)
 TV, newspapers and radio (21%)
 Friends (19%)
 Twitter (10%)
 Colleagues (9%)
 Other web platforms, (blogs, forums and Tumblr) (9%).

13. Modes of reading
 55% read in paperback
 42% had read in ebook format:
 Kindle or e-reader device (21%)
 mobile phone or tablet apps (13%)
 computers/laptops (8%).
 All had read Fifty Shades of Grey
 58% had read Fifty Shades Darker
 51% had read Fifty Shades Freed
 40% bought books online
 20% from a supermarket
 12% from a bookshop
 17% borrowed from friends/family
 6% were given it
 6% got it for free by other means
 Two purchased elsewhere, one
borrowed from a library

14. The popularity of Fifty Shades
 It has allowed women's sexuality to be brought into the mainstream.
It allows for women to be more sexually curious or adventurous and
lets them be more sexually expressive (Reader 87)
 Women got to read erotica in public and it made talking about sex at
the water cooler acceptable at work (Reader 38)
 It made a lot of people feel that their sexual preferences were
justified and gave them a chance to discuss these in an open arena
whilst hiding behind the premise of discussing the book. (Reader 18)
 I think it has bought erotica in to the mainstream and shown that it
can be done tastefully. (Reader 23)

15. The popularity of Fifty Shades
 People like sex but are embarrassed to talk about it. The book made
sex accessible and acceptable to talk about. Also the "shock factor"
was intriguing to people. People also like "keep up with the jones‘
(Reader 84)
 It provides a relationship for women to fantasise about having and
some escapism from the familiarity of their own relationship. It's a
simple love story which women can read about. (Reader 52)
 The fact they were selling in the grocery stores for only £3 each. The
over - hype. discussions - everyone wanted to read and discuss them,
to give their own opinions. (Reader 65)

16. The popularity of Fifty Shades
 ebooks. you can read it on your kindle and nobody knows that you're
reading it! The classy covers also help because they don't look like
genre fiction, more like literary fiction. (Reader 5)
 Because it started with a strong fan base as an 'underground success'
if you like. The internet and very active Twilight communities allowed
word to spread quickly and easily. Being able to buy it on Kindle did
enable more people to buy it who might otherwise have been too
embarrassed too. Facebook and twitter took it viral and suddenly
everyone else wants to know what the fuss is about. Someone makes
a documentary about it, the Daily Mail run an article a day about it
telling us it is a run away success and thus it becomes so... (Reader 9)

17. Everybody’s talking about it…
 69% of readers cited ‘curiosity’ or ‘needing to know what the fuss
was about’ as their key motivations for reading.
 Resisted for a while then gave in to see what the fuss was about
(Reader 64)
 I was so sick of hearing about this book that I just had to find out for
myself what it was all about (Reader 70)
 67% of survey respondents had discussed the series either ‘a little’ or
‘a lot’ more than other books.
 Every respondent had discussed the books with other people via
some means, whether in person, online or via telephone.

18. Everybody’s talking about it…
 On Facebook, 41% had shared, commented on or liked others’ posts
relating to the books, 39% had discussed them on a page or in a
group, 34% had made a status update about them.
 24% had discussed them on Twitter, and 12% had followed relevant
hashtags.
 5% had blogged about them and another 5% had discussed them on
internet forums.
 Four readers had blogged or shared about them on Tumblr and two
had created Fifty Shades boards on Pinterest.

19. Everybody’s talking about it…
 A group of us at work ripped through all three books at the same
time. Naturally we were all female. The jokes, incredulity and
humour that arose was incredibly bonding (emotionally not with
cable ties) (Reader 17)
 An entire FB group was created to discuss the book and share stories
from around the internet. (Reader 31)
 It was the fact that a close friend and colleague had read it and had a
copy that finally prompted me to read it, notwithstanding the less than
ringing endorsement: "It's awful. You will hate everything about it. But
you have to read it.“ (Reader 54)

20. Love to hate…
 What is unusual in the case of Fifty Shades is that the
‘recommendations’ were often incredibly negative about the object –
here was a book you must read but weren’t really supposed to like, in
fact, the best response was to be superior, to recognize its failures as
a novel, its inability to get the sex or BDSM relationship ‘right’ and
particularly, its failure to be properly erotic. (Deller and Smith, 2013)
 I figured it couldn't be as bad as everyone said when it had sold so
many copies. Had to check for myself... People said it was poorly
written erotica… It was poorly written erotica (Reader 77)

21. Responses to Anastasia
 I hate her intensely. She is so moronic and wet. And I hate her
internal monologue. If I hear about her salsa-ing internal goddess
one more time I shall scream! I also hate the way that all of her limits
are hard limits but she will not acknowledge Christian's hard limits
and feels that she must demolish them. (Reader 5)
 She was pathetic, petulant and self-obsessed. She seemed to keep
trying to convince us (and CG) that she was independent when in fact
she was a foolish little girl. I imagine they'd be divorced in 10 years as
Grey could do better. Ana was too demanding, self-obsessed and
insecure. (Reader 18)

22. Responses to Anastasia
 I liked her character even though she was naive and rather geeky, but
I can relate to that. She was ordinary and ended up with an
extraordinary life, which is generally everything a girl dreams of so I
was rather jealous! (Reader 2)
 She has more balls than Bella Swan, her lip biting and inner goddess
monologues came across as funnier and self knowing in the original.
Sometimes in 50 shades she comes across as just wet. (Reader 9)

23. Responses to Christian
 If someone bought me a new car after the first date I'd assume they
were 4 dates away from going psycho. (Reader 42)
 [Christian] seemed like an odd mix between abusive and harmless.
His stalking tendencies were genuinely disturbing, but his dark secret
(the Red Room of Pain) was rather vanilla compared to what I was
expecting. (Reader 11)
 Christian comes across as a sexual predator with unresolved
psychological issues, who preys on an innocent / easily malleable
young woman. (Reader 51)

24. Responses to Christian
 He's pretty much the perfect man in my opinion! He's a extremely
attractive, a sexual expert, very intelligent, obscenely rich and
powerful and obsessed with Ana's happiness and safety! He does, of
course, have issues with control etc and a murky past but I think the
good certainly out weighs the bad, especially as there are good
reasons for his less admirable attributes. (Reader 2)
 I found him appealing, desirable and admirable. His character had far
more depth than Ana and I would have much rather heard his
internal monologue than hers. (Reader 18)

25. Reading the romance
 Umm... predictable. I hated it when she got pregnant that made me
really angry. But it's a traditional Mills and Boon, really, it's just
working how all those books always work - crazy sex, stable
relationship, marriage, baby, crazy sex while married. (Reader 10)
 Not really any different to any other romance genre novel and its
clearly trying to be Jane Eyre (and failing). (Reader 5)
 It was just another love story in which the woman was weak and
needed to be saved by a man. Boring... (Reader 88)
 Far fetched and very unlikely but that's what romance readers want
isn't it? (Reader 64)

26. Reading the romance
 Any story that advocates a man being so in love with any ordinary,
although quite physically attractive, girl is quite appealing! (Reader 2)
 I liked the romance side and liked the fact that Ana managed to win
Christian round to a relationship… After a while the sexual parts
became just a small part of the story for me (a bit like an added
extra) because I was just so engrossed in the storyline and their
blossoming romance. (Reader 67)
 A relationship I fantasise about having! The sweeping off one's feet
and falling so in love that that person completely changes your life
and becomes your everything. (Reader 52)

27. Let’s talk about sex…
 86% of these said the books had influenced their attitudes to sex in
some way.
 67% found them a turn-on (including both male respondents).
 87% had heard of BDSM before reading the books and 38% had
previously engaged in BDSM practices.
 22% said the books had encouraged them to try (further) BDSM
practices.
 24% had used the books in their personal masturbation or fantasy.
 Only one woman said she had used them with her partner
 Two had bought new sex toys since reading them.

28. Let’s talk about sex
 I was surprised how quickly this sex became boring. And MOST
OFFENSIVE?? No woman comes every time, and no woman comes on
demand. That part actually made me angry pretty quickly. Big turn
off. It was okay but got increasingly more boring. When you start
praying for some anal sex (Chekov's Gun! He mentioned anal and
then never did it), you know a book has turned you into a cold
monster. (Reader 30)
 The attempts to link them to Grey's childhood frustrated me as I
don't think there needs to be justification for someone to have
dominating tendencies. (Reader 18)

29. Let’s talk about sex…
 The idea of the tortured anti hero and the innocent virgin who shows
him the path to true love is well worn to say the least. Adding a (well
researched) BDSM plot makes it fresher. (Reader 9)
 Some of it was good. Some was fantastic. I don’t go for all the extreme
stuff, but it definitely held my interest. (Reader 80)
 It was really enjoyable. I think it was hyped up to be [more] ‘full-on’
that [sic] it really was. When you first read the sex part of the contract
you are lead [sic] to believe you would read sex scenes of that nature
but it really was more about the teasing and dominating nature of
Christian. (Reader 23)

30. Complex readings
 Reader 2 enjoyed the romance yet called James’ writing ‘appallingly
terrible in some places’
 Reader 67 complained about the repetitive nature of the writing but
even though ‘I didn't find the book to be particularly well written in
the literary sense, it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book’
 Reader 53 found them ‘boring’ and ‘repetitive’ and would not re-
read them, but had read all three books and considered them a turn-
on.

31. The pleasures and pains of Fifty Shades
 Subversive yet mainstream – subtle yet obvious covers; prominence
in supermarkets.
 Women’s desires becoming more acknowledged – yet denigrated or
mocked.
 Discussion as bonding exercise between women via social media,
book groups and other spaces of talk. Everyone had to read them
and have an opinion.
 Complicated responses: readers loving the romance and hating the
characters; hating the writing yet finding the books a turn-on.

32. And now there’s a film…
 Survey available at researching50shades.co.uk
 Please do complete if you have seen the film.
 Visit our websites for details on results when they are released:
http://www.ruthdeller.co.uk; http://www.clarissasmith.co.uk