Fifty Shades of Stupid

No, I haven't read the book. I won't, either. I have read review, though. I've also read two commentaries focusing on the book's huge success, one by a male, one by a female. Both came to a very surprising conclusion: The reason why so many women buy this book is because - gasp! - women are submissive. By default. All of them. The authors of the commentaries didn't explicitly say so, but both of them clearly implied that.

Yeah, right, some women are submissive. Most aren't. Some are submissive in bed, for some it's a rational and informed choice, for some (much too many) it's not a choice at all, but their culturally and/or socially enforced role.

But to say that E.L.James' book or rather it's phenomenal success, is proof of women being submissive by default is more than just stupid. It's about as smart as saying that the fact that half of Europe's male population was watching Real Madrid's victory over Bayern München is proof that European males are by default accomplished football players. 

Exactly fifty shades of grey. Not Grey

Guess what: They're not Lionel Messi. And we're not Anastasia Steele.

If anything, Fifty Shades of Grey is proof that women want a rich, handsome, adventurous lover who actually cares about them. Plus, on the sex side: They also want a man who can think of more than missionary sex and blowjobs.

Me, I'd like that book rewritten with the hero being a pot-bellied and balding, unemployed middle aged bloke living in a trailer park but still with all the character traits of Christian Grey.

Guess how many women will read that book?