On Not Reading Fifty Shades: Feminism and the Fantasy of Romantic Immunity

Publication year
2015
Pages
117-132
Comment
The link is not to the published version, but it was clearly in a state very close to publication.

The vast majority of discussions of Fifty Shades were as or more concerned with the readers of the text than with the books themselves. As noted above, the assertion of immunity from the text was often inextricable from claims of cultural superiority to its readers. To claim immunity from romance involves aggressively differentiating oneself from the large numbers of women who display no such immunity. This distancing, and denigration, was repeatedly achieved through dividing readers into two categories: ‘mommies,’ shorthand for married, suburban women without paid employment, and very young women or teenage girls. (124-125)