Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey by Lori Perkins Page B

living in a world where such talk is acceptable. We don’t encourage women to sit idly by and let men abuse them, or fantasize about abuse.
    Something happened between February 12, 2012, and March of 2012, when
Fifty Shades of Grey
’s stunning momentum dragged it from “that thing readers are talking about on the internet” into an honest-to-goodness media spotlight. Suddenly it was just fine for women to fantasize about an abusive, controlling man and to flood the internet with those fantasies, going so far as to lament the fact that their own husbands weren’t just like the dangerously flawed hero of their dreams.
    Surely we’re not describing Christian Grey, the twenty-seven-year-old wunderkind who plays piano like a concert pianist, pilots a helicopter bought with his own vast fortune, and feeds starving children in Africa? Christian Grey is not an abusive boyfriend. He’s gorgeous and kind; he lavishes gifts on the object of his affection, Anastasia Steele. Her Cinderella story culminates in the American dream of prosperity and two beautiful children. That’s not abuse.
    But he also stalks her. When Ana goes to a bar to get drunk for the first time, in celebration of completing her final college exam, she remembers his number on her phone and drunk-dials him. Within moments, Christian tracks her cell phone and arrives at the bar—despite her explicit request to the contrary—and spirits her away, unconscious. True, her friend José has gotten drunk and “handsy” in the parking lot, and Christian’s arrival saves her from certain date rape, but still, she had asked him not to come. He admits, without any shame, that he used his considerable wealth and resources to track her cell phone. Christian showing up as the knight in shining armor—when he didn’t know his intervention was needed or welcome in the first place—sends a very clear message to Ana and the reader: “Your personal wishes and boundaries are not important to me. I’m going to do what I want to do with you.”
    Later in the book, Christian tells Ana that no matter where she goes, he has the resources to find her. He proves this when she pleads with him for space and leaves Washington for Georgia to visit her mother and think about their relationship. Within two days, Christian shows up in his private jet, ready to be sexually serviced by Ana. Even though Ana’s explicit wish was to be left alone for a few days, Christian cannot abide. If Ana is outside of his sphere of influence, he can’t possibly control her, so he has to fly to Georgia to insinuate himself between Ana and her mother. He goes so far as to follow the two to a bar and watch them for an unspecified amount of time before contacting Ana. A reader can’t help but wonder how many other times Christian Grey is lurking just out of Ana’s sight, watching her every move. Some might call that romantic. Others call that stalking.
    Crashing Ana’s visit with her mother serves another purpose. By meeting and charming both of Ana’s parents very early in their relationship, Christian can win them over to his “side,” so that Ana has no neutral observer to whom she is emotionally close. The Georgia incident happens late in the book, but within days of meeting Ana, Christian forces her to introduce him to her father. When both of Ana’s parents are impressed by Christian’s wealth and charm, Ana has been cut off from two very important safe outlets in her life. They’ve met Ana’s “boyfriend,” they like him, and they both advise her, despite her uncertainties, to work out her relationship with him.
    Ana has only one close friend, her roommate, Kate. From the beginning of Ana’s association with Christian, Kate doesn’t trust him or like him. She teases Ana at first about having a crush on Christian, but once she begins to see the toll their relationship takes on Ana, she encourages Ana to see Christian Grey for the control freak that he is. She also tries to get Ana to