Why Women Everywhere are Coming Together for "Fifty Shades of Grey" (Pun somewhat intended)

 I read all three books in about 9 days. I work over 40 hours a week, have a 2 and a half year old and I'm in the process of moving. My spare time is limited. So let me paint a picture for you on how this was accomplished: I was reading before I got up for work at 5:30am, I read at stop lights on the way to (and from) work, I read at lunch, I read while watching Dancing with the Stars, I stayed up way past my bedtime and continued to read.  I couldn't put it down.

I recruited about 8 other women at work to also start reading. It took off like a wildfire. We'd pass eachother in the hall and give that smile like, yeah I know you were reading it till 2 am too. What is it about this book?? Ten million copies have been sold since March. Which means lots of women are feeling just as excited as I am about Christian Grey and Ana Steele.

While the books are an easy read, I don't think this is why its so easy to read them. Let me also preface this by saying I've never read any kind of erotica before. I was an erotica virgin if you will, so I have nothing to compare these books to. All I know is that it didn't have a Fabio look alike with some woman's boobs almost hanging out on the cover, and that right there is enough for me to dive further into what these books are all about.

The first book gave me butterflies. I was nervous and excited and I felt like I was feeling all the same things that Ana must be "feeling" as she meets with Christian in the first few chapters. What the hell? No book had done that to me before. I was immediately forming my "Christian" in my mind...Christian Bale? Ian Somerhalder? That guy from White Collar....Matt Bomer? Yeah, any of those will do.

This became my fantasy. I got to escape for minutes or hours throughout the day to this story. Like I could open the book, step in to the pages, and I was lost in this delicious "this will never happen to me but I get to pretend it will" fantasy all throughout the day. But the best part was that I knew all those girls reading it with me felt the same way. We all giggled and became thirteen year old teenagers again. It's like Christian was real and we just waiting for him to step out of the page.

We cheered for Ana and cursed her at the same time. We wanted the story to be a little more raunchy at times, and we definitely wanted Christian to speak up more during sex. We thought he would be a little more vocal than what he was (just our opinion...). We talked about the fantasy of it all: Ana gets to orgasm EVERY time?? And that quickly?? Lucky bitch. But in my fantasy that would be an important detail...so I'll go with it. We wanted the sex to last longer in some places, and we all could not WAIT until they got into the Red Room. Oh the Red Room...wait what?

Does this mean that I (er, we) as a collective group of women around the world are excited with the fact that this man has a room dedicated to all sorts of kinkey ______ ? Hell yes we are. And let me give you the reason why: We are tired of making all the decisions. We have the power 98.9% of our day. Whether you are a working mother, stay at home mom, work with no kids, whatever. We as women control most of our days and our daily lives with constant decisions. What a lovely idea to step into a room, situation, or relationship where you have the trust in the other to just surrender. Where he knows what feels good and what doesn't and you just have to let him. Give up the power girls. That can be a scary thought. But how freeing at the same time.

Oh yeah...Ana gets to fix Fifty. That's the other piece of the puzzle. Whether you admit it or not, we women like to do those things. Here's this beautiful scarred man that desperately needs her love to heal him. Hallelujah! Sign me up!

We feel sexy again. I don't feel sexy when I'm constantly lost in thought of what needs to get done, what I need to cook or clean, who needs to go where and what other responsibilities are flooding my brain. Sexiness is not a top priority. But this book made me feel sexy. It turned me on and got me thinking about ideas and situations that normally, I would never think about turning  me on. We as a collective female force around the world are feeling sexy again. We feel good about sex and maybe want to have alot more because of this book. Husbands and boyfriends everywhere are letting us read at dinner and while we watch tv with them on the sofa because they know what this book is doing to us. And well, they like what its doing to them too.

These books brings us together. We get to laugh and talk about a topic that we typically don't discuss because, quite frankly, none of our lives are quite this exciting. We all interpret the books differently, and discuss how it makes us feel. We join together at book clubs and laugh until we cry discussing various parts of the story and share our own personal stories.

Fifty Shades, in my opinion, is allowing us to discover the kinky fuckery in us all. And we can't wait for the movie.  Since most of us have been busy casting the actors in our heads for weeks now anyway.

A big thanks to E L James who felt inspired to bring such an amazing fantasy to all of us. Even though she thought no one would read it...

...Turns out she's not the only one that's into the Red Room...