Fifty Shades of Sexy

First pubilshed on 7/23/2012 Time for another 50 Shades of Gray update, as my flying monkeys continues to dump reams of the stuff on me, but at least SOME of it has bondage-y goodness to it, and some of it's funny, and some of it's strange.

There's starting to be a clear bifurcation in the response to 50 Shades of Gray: reviewers and columnists don't like it (often bragging that they didn't bother to read it). Readers who respond to it in the columns' comment sections tend to love it. It very much reminds me of the difference between official reviewers of "Deathstalker" on IMDB and the fans who write comments: regular folks liked it, the official bloviators dislike it.

A popular tack for many of the nay-sayers is to say the book is bad for bondage. Here's an example with a nice image of a woman with her hands tied behind her scantily clad backside.

Policymic has a very nicely illustrated article showing 5 reasons why women love 50 shades of Gray, very sexy for a political website. Perhaps they are learning from me. It's about time!

A general culture blog called OC Weekly has a nicely illustrated article about the increase in sales of kinky products inspired by 50 Shades of Gray, featuring a hot blonde in restraints and lingerie.

Down in Australia, they're just now getting around to being surprised by the success of 50 Shades of Gray in some cases. The Cleo News writes about their astonishment and includes a nice image of a lingerie clad woman with her hands bound behind her back, albeit very loosely.

A radio station in Ohio encouraged husbands to get together and hold a public book burning of 50 Shades of Gray, in what can only be described as a ceremony of communal dicklessness. Jeebus, guys, can't get it up? Sad. No image with this one, it's stupid all the way through.

You may think this is a lot, but it's a tiny fraction of what's out there. Most of the articles I see are mindlessly bloviating opinion pieces by bloggers/writers who clearly have not read the book, illustrated with the usual cover art from the book's dust jacket. I never run those, why inflict them on my readers, they're boring enough for me. Plus the celebrity blogs are constantly speculating on who will be cast to play the leads in the 50 Shades of Gray movie, also very boring stuff.

There is one article in particular, however, which I did not include here, because it is too fricking good. It's from Alternet, and it shows some very shrewd insight into some of the cultural aspects of bondage and dominance and links that to 50 Shades of Gray. I'll be treating that one to an in-depth analysis, it deserves it.

Fifty Shades of Kinky Imagery in Mainstream Media

First published on 7/10/2012 Well the 50 Shades of Gray tsunami keeps rolling in, and as it rolls in gives mainstream sites all kinds of excuses ... er, reasons ... for showing images of sexy women in bondage. Here are a few more for your consideration:

Yahoo Lifestyle Australia has an article on 50 Shades of Gray spurring sales of sex toys that features a lingerie-clad cutie trying on a pair of black fur-trimmed love cuffs.

The Sun over in the UK boasts an article proclaiming that 50 Shades of Gray Fans Want Bossy Sex which features a large photo of a woman clad in a skimpy pair of red-hot panties with her cuffed hands crossed over them.

Mommy non-porn site The Frisky features an article entitled "Girl Talk: I Want To Be Dominated," about what a turn on it is to be dominated, that's illustrated with a cutie wearing red fur-lined love cuffs, white stockings and not a lot else.

Aaaand just to show that old dumb dies hard, Female First, which bills itself as a celebrity gossip and lifestyle magazine features an article entitled How To: Bondage," which is illustrated with an image of a well-endowed blond in a boustier, thong and blindfold being held by a romance novel cover-looking guy ... but no actual bondage.