[C19fan]

Fifty Shades as a revolt, albeit perverted, against the emasculating of men. Thomas Hardy's "Far from the Maddening Crowd" explores different ways of being a man in the three suitors of Bathsheba Everdene.

[LYDIAONTARIO]

This book had more sales than Harry Potter books? Hard to believe.

[Pollster1]

The Bible has sold at least 25 times as many copies as “50 Shades of Porn”. “Harry Potter” has 500 million copies (5 times as many as this dreadful porn), but that is for all seven volumes. I wonder if the “50 Shades” total is the first volume or combined.

[arthurus]

“Far from the Madding Crowd”

[gspurlock]

It’s important to remember that we have a few generations that have been schooled to believe that masculinity = abuse. They don’t know the difference between “strength” and “malice” as they have been indoctrinated to believe they are one and the same.

[PapaBear3625]

Fifty Shades even appears to be a ripoff of 9 1/2 Weeks from 1986, starring Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke. The guy's character in 9 1/2 was even named John Gray:

The title of the film refers to the duration of a relationship between Wall Street arbitrageur John Gray (Mickey Rourke) and divorced SoHo art gallery employee Elizabeth McGraw (Kim Basinger). John initiates and controls the various experimental sexual practices of this volatile relationship to push Elizabeth's boundaries. In doing so, Elizabeth experiences a gradual downward spiral toward emotional breakdown.