Sunday, June 10, 2012

Fifty Shades of Cock Block.


Okay, while I try not to fancy myself as someone who follows the crowd, sometimes I give in.

Being surrounded by women at my new job is a brand new experience. One that’s interesting but yields different types of rules. Comments need to be thought through, hair flips need to be poignant and sometimes eye contact needs to be broken. Keep your head down, do your work.

But when in women town, do as the women do and all the women are reading fifty Shades of Grey. The English major inside of me doesn’t like to be kept out of any kind of conversation about books, so I hastily jumped onto this bandwagon.

The book itself is odd. It’s popularity stems from a mainstream book having such erotic imagery that is usually reserved to a mattress book or the back pages of Cosmo. But Christian Grey puts it out there for all to see.

Reading it confuses a lot in me, mostly because I don’t believe the character of Grey. Someone who is so into bondage and possession gives way when a confused virgin enters his world? I doubt if this were true life someone like him would even invite someone like her into his Red Room of Pain.

This then begs the question, how does this affect the men?

I have so many guy friends. I like them because they’re simple. Uncomplicated men who say what they’re thinking. How many relationships are confused because this is the way that men really are when all the books and movies paint them as these complicated layers that need to be peeled away?

I wonder what men think when they read this book. The women have had such a reaction to the complexity of Grey, that I know men are picking it up just to figure out why their women are all of a sudden glaring at them when Sinatra comes on and they’re not immediately asked to dance.

Sorry, boys.

But I bet it’s not the first time a fictional character has cock-blocked you.

And let me tell you a secret…

We’re not as complicated as we seem. This won’t be the last time it happens to you.