What is all this buzz about Fifty Shades of Grey? Do you know anybody but me who hasn’t or isn’t reading the book? I see women reading it with their mouths open, Kindles with smoke coming out of them, and recently saw Don Imus on Imus in the Morning take on his wife Deirdre Imus and Lis Wiehl in one of their awful “Blonde on Blonde” segments. I generally turn Imus off and go back to the ever-boring and most often syrupy Morning Joe when “Blonde on Blonde” comes on, however I did recently hear Deirdre explain, while discussing Fifty Shades of Grey, what the difference is between pornography and eroticism. Not sure she was right, but she claimed pornography necessarily involved “the degradation of women.” I imagine some porn can involve the degradation of men and, worse, children, as opposed to good old fashioned erotic behavior, eroticism.
Which brings me to this question, how viewing child porn is not against state law in New York. Recently the state’s highest court ruled that viewing child porn isn’t a crime under state law. Very disturbing, and I will address this issue in upcoming posts.
Now back to the Fifty Shades trilogy, including Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. It is a New York Times #1 bestselling erotic fiction paperback and e-book by E.L. James. The books’ erotic nature and perceived demographic of its fan base, mostly married women over 30, has led the books to being dubbed “mommy porn,” but I know some guys are out there reading and learning a new trick or two.
