Some call it “erotic fiction”. Others, “those steamy books my friends have been buzzing about”. The 50 Shades trilogy by E.L. James is, however, probably best known for popularising one term in particular: “mummy porn”.
Just to save you a possibly embarrassing Google search with potentially bizarre results, that refers to porn for mothers, and has nothing to do with people having a sexy time whilst wrapped head-to-toe in bandages. Although, Rule 34 of the Internet says that’s probably out there somewhere too.
For the very few who are still yet to find out about this whole phenomenon, Wikipedia will tell you the plot of the first book, 50 Shades of Grey, is about:
“The deepening relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, and a young business magnate, Christian Grey.”
So, nothing too exciting there. What then is making people so interested? Well, Wikipedia continues…
“It is notable for its explicitly erotic scenes featuring elements of BDSM.”
And holy cow is “mummy porn” popular.
All three books currently sit atop the New York Times fiction best seller list, and the first in the series recently became the fastest selling paperback of all time in the United Kingdom.
Personally I call this a victory for equality, even though it does revolve around a rich entrepreneur using a virginal young woman primarily for his sexual pleasure.
India Knight, writing in last week’s Sunday Times, made an excellent point though, that there is a real double standard at play now in how we judge erotic materials. “Mummy porn” is seen as fun, harmless, even liberating, and therefore exempt from critique or social judgement, whereas “daddy porn” is inherently “horrid” and “depraved”.
“Porn is porn,” she argues, “and giving it a playful prefix alters nothing.”
And I am inclined to agree with her. If people are willing to describe merely suggestive film clips as “pornography”, which happens all the time, then I think a book with explicit passages like these should be seen as more than just “romantic fiction”.
OK, many women may be reading these books primarily for the story (indeed, I am told there is actually a very lovely storyline stringing the raunchy sex scenes together), but that’s rather like saying you only read Playboy “for the articles”.
Not that I am complaining either way, of course. If it is “kinky f—kery” women want, then “kinky f—kery” they should have, by the yacht-load.
But, re-framing the terms of the debate in this way does raise some very tricky questions for those who do see porn as a major social concern.
Melinda Tankard Reist, for example, will instantly jump on anything that would support her claim that society is becoming more “pornified”, no matter how far from mainstream tastes it may be. And, yet, on the content and popularity of 50 Shades, she is conspicuously silent.
Imagine if this same book, with the same events, was written by a man from a man’s perspective? Something tells me she and a whole hoard of like-minded men and women, would be pretty upset.
If it too then went on to sell ten million copies, they would turn apoplectic.
But there has been precious little outrage from those who ordinarily speak up whenever any opportunity to voice some kind of moral outrage presents itself.
It seems “mummy porn” has been totally neglected by the anti-porn brigade. Given its mainstream popularity, one has to wonder: why?
I suspect it has something to with the fact the 50 Shades trilogy clearly does not fit the narrative that people like Gail Dines and Karen Boyle have spent many years simultaneously telling and getting upset about, where, perhaps following the intellectual lead of the late Andrea Dworkin, the porn industry is positioned as an engine of rape, violence towards women, and all-out misery.
Most significantly, these books are written by a woman, from a woman’s perspective and are extremely popular with everyday women. Which, of course, challenges the presumption that pornography is something done to women, never by them and/or for them.
These books have also become enormously popular by nothing more than word-of-mouth. They have not been forced upon anyone, but have been actively sought out for reading pleasure by women all around the world, again challenging the idea that our sexuality is being hijacked by depraved corporate interests.
They are also works of pure fiction; the imaginings of a middle-aged British mother. This nullifies a common tactic used by anti-porn campaigners: to veil their moral concerns under the banner of human rights (because porn stars are often coerced into the industry from positions of desperation, and therefore need “saving”).
Nobody is actually getting hurt in the making of this book. Just a lot of women getting turned on by the thought of it.
These unassailable truths are therefore rather inconvenient to those who spend their lives fighting against porn, because “Mummy porn” does not easily reconcile with their existing cognitive and ideological frameworks.
Seriously engaging with the 50 Shades phenomenon might force them to admit the flaws in those underlying assumptions. Instead, they have largely chosen to ignore it.
So I think people like Melinda Tankard Reist now have a real challenge on their hands. Either they continue to pretend that these books (and the millions of women who can’t get enough of them) don’t exist and thereby draw attention to their inconsistent attitudes towards eroticism in our culture, or they treat them as a form of pornography like any other.
Indeed, if you’re really worried about “big porn” and violent sex becoming part of the mainstream, then you probably ought to start at the top of the list, with the most mainstream porn of all.
But don’t be surprised if some of your closest friends don’t join the crusade.
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