Fifty Shades
Ambivalence about birth control in an erotic bestseller and its cultural implications
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15098009 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Waltraud Maierhofer (0000-0003-3967-8655, University of Iowa, corresponding author), Emanuella Israel (University of Iowa) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 515-527 |
| Publication date | 2017-04-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Culture Health & Sexuality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1369-1058 • E-ISSN: 1464-5351 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13691058.2016.1239275 |
| PMID | 27760506 |
| OpenAlex | W2535908536 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
The Fifty Shades trilogy by E.L. James has taken the world by storm and become a cultural phenomenon. The lack of contraceptive use in the erotic fiction, first pointed out by bloggers, is analysed in this article and compared to medical information. James may be praised for sexualising condom use. However, her protagonist makes poor choices in terms of hormonal contraception and is negligent about its use, resulting in an unintended pregnancy and resolved in marital bliss and motherhood. What is of more interest here than a possible message about contraceptive use, is the outcome that the fiction's negligence in birth control and responsibility affirms an ideology in which female sexuality and sexual experimentation can only be tolerated within the context of procreation and affirmation of motherhood. Subsequently, the cultural significance of the trilogy's popularity and its tension between sexual exploration, birth control and fertility is explored. In a globally popular fantasy published more than five decades after the introduction of the pill, the protagonist's lack of attention to reliable birth control leads to a telling dichotomy that combines adventurous exploration of female sexuality and affirmation of the nuclear family
Ambivalence · Art · Birth control · Family planning · Fantasy · Human sexuality · Literature · Popularity · Population · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Trilogy · Demography · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Psychology · Social Psychology · Themes in Literature Analysis
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |