By Ljudmila Petrovic
Photo by Mark Burnham

What bestsellers like Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey say about women and sexuality

Let me get one thing straight: I have never read nor seen Twilight. At the height of its popularity, I picked up the first book to see what the hype was about. Twelve pages were all I needed to know that I could not read any more poorly-written melodrama. But I digress. Despite my snide opinion, there is nonetheless something about Twilight that made the book reach the number five spot of the New York Times bestseller list within a month of its release. I don’t personally care about Team Edward or Team Jacob, but the fact that these “teams” even exist says something about the appeal of these characters: readers care, they empathize, they identify. Most importantly, for a character considered to be so shallow, the debates surrounding the protagonist Bella Swan are extremely dynamic and complex: is she submissive, or fighting for love? Is she a negative role model, or a strong one?

The general plot seems simple enough: Bella falls in love with Edward Cullen. She’s 17, so you’d think it was dramatic enough, but he also happens to be a vampire. I don’t know the logistics — I’m sure most Twi-hards could explain the nuances better than me — but the main problem appears to be inter-species dating, and how much more complicated consummating their relationship is. As long as Edward is a vampire and she is a human, he is capable of accidentally hurting Bella during sex (something about not knowing his own strength). Very long story short, she leaves her family, gives up life as a human, and eventually transforms into a vampire in order to be with Edward. One of the main criticisms of Bella’s character is that she has no ambitions and goals of her own, but rather only sees a future as defined by her relationship with Edward Cullen; despite his efforts to dissuade her, she insists on being transformed into a vampire in order to be with him. Another criticism — mostly made by feminist groups — is that Bella seems to always need a male figure in her life: she lives with her father, and then falls in love with the possessive Edward. When he leaves, she is drawn to Jacob, a werewolf. This cycle has led to the general belief that Bella is a submissive, dependent woman, and is not fit to be a strong role model for the young girls that make up the series’s demographic.

A blog titled Twilight Gurls: Because Twilight does NOT suck!, had a post that addressed this very issue. The evidence for Bella being a solid role model lies in her appearance, her popularity, and her willingness to fight for Edward. “Bella Swan is so pretty!!! that’s [sic] really good and it gives girls something to aspire to! [Bella is] inspiring girls to take better care of themselves and try to be prettier!!” writes a user that calls herself LizzieBella. “She teaches you about love…she shows how its [sic] important to be in love and all the things people do for love!” It is unclear whether this blog is satirical or whether it is written by true Twilight fans, but it nonetheless reflects a very real position. Bella certainly does fight for love, and when you think about it, Bella is submissive and makes errors in judgment, but perhaps that’s what makes her so real and relatable to readers. Literature has been filled with strong women who fight for themselves and uphold their pride, but the reality is, nobody does that on an everyday basis, making “weaker” female characters — though not the best role models — appealing, because they are so relatable.

This brings me to what has been called “Twilight for the grown-up set,” and the newest craze to hit the New York Times bestseller list: Fifty Shades of Grey. E. L. James’s erotic novel has topped the list for 19 weeks, with its sequels — Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed — at second and third, respectively, for 19 and 18 weeks. The premise follows Anastasia Steele, a 22-year-old college literature student. Anastasia is a blushing virgin when she stumbles into Christian Grey’s office. She is meant to interview him for her campus newspaper, but they end up engaging in a sexual relationship that would have been described as “kinky” or even “perverted” before Fifty Shades of Grey became a best-seller and brought the topics of bondage and other fetishes into the spotlight for housewives and young women alike.

What is surprising about this book’s rise to mainstream is the extensive descriptions of the BDSM (bondage/discipline, domination/submission, and sadism/masochism) in which the couple engages. The steamy sex scenes are graphically described, bringing the book to the public’s attention. Ellen DeGeneres called this series “mommy porn,” referring to the assumed demographic of the readership: middle-aged, suburban mothers and wives.

James is herself a mother in her forties and, in an interview on The Today Show, she spoke about how a mid-life crisis led to Fifty Shades of Grey — and how the series started as a Twilight fan fiction, with the aforementioned series being a foundation for the characters in Fifty Shades. Recently, however, the publisher’s data (collected from social media, Google searches, and fan sites) revealed that a majority of readers are younger than the perceived age — usually in their 20s and 30s.

Certainly, the demographic of the readership is largely female, but that does not mean that it hasn’t sparked male interest. A blog on the Men’s Health website tackled the topic of why women were so swept away by the series. One of the comments — by a female — explained that it was because Christian made Anastasia feel like she was a goddess, but more interestingly, because Anastasia managed to “fix him” and rid him of the emotional baggage he had at the beginning of the story. It is interesting that a book that is not particularly well-written or insightful could open so much discussion. For example, on askmen.com, a reader wrote in that he and his wife are reading the book together, and are using it as a starting point for discussion about their sexual fantasies. A recent article in the Georgia Straight addressed this as a positive effect of the books: they are a platform for discussion. The article argues that this book is not just an outlet for the fantasies of sexually repressed women; rather, it is responsible for making less conventional sexual practices that have previously been deemed “kinky” a topic of discussion for women of all classes, ages, and relationship statuses.

“Mainstream pornography is generally made by and made for men,” Vancouver clinical counselor and sex therapist Teesha Morgan told the Georgia Straight. “Women are desire-seeking, sexually driven creatures as well. It just has to be packaged to them in the right way.” This corroborates the idea that discussion can and should be open on these topics, and that the gender differences lie not in what individuals want, but in how it is presented to them.

However, while both Bella and Anastasia are submissive, their love interests — Edward and Christian, respectively — treat them as if they are fragile, and protect the women. Because the characters of Fifty Shades are directly based off of Twilight’s, it’s not surprising that the relationships are similar. There is also a very specific balance in these relationships that draws women to these stories: the males are unquestionably dominant — women may feel much the same in their own relationships — but they are also uncharacteristically caring and protective. In the case of Fifty Shades, there is also forbidden eroticism.

The character of Christian Grey never has to ask Anastasia what she wants from their sex life; instead, he is in control in every sense of the word. In fact, only several pages into the first book, the reader learns that he likes to have control over all aspects of his life. There are many — including Katie Roiphe in a Newsweek opinion piece — that believe that the appeal of these books lies in control. Proponents of this theory elaborate that, while the contemporary woman has a successful career and control over her life, she still fantasizes about being submissive in bed — a fantasy that is played out quite vividly in the pages of Fifty Shades.

However, Anastasia says that, deep down, she just wants more affection and love. So, what is important is not that she herself is particularly drawn to sado-masochism. Rather, it is that she loves a man that is, and she is willing to do what makes him happy, making her even more of a submissive character than she already was.  “Women have more sexual freedom and more power than ever before in our history,” feminist Katha Pollitt told Newsweek on the topic of Fifty Shades. “But that does not mean they have a lot of either, and it doesn’t mean they don’t have complicated feelings of guilt, shame and unworthiness.” Pollitt and many others have used this to explain female fantasies about sexual submission: it is about a dissonance between different social roles, and many of these women are more comfortable being pursued rather than the instigator. A character like Anastasia in a relationship like the one portrayed in Fifty Shades is exactly relatable to women that fit Pollitt’s theory: she is engaging in sexual acts that can be seen as deviant or wild, but the feelings of guilt and shame that Pollitt speaks of cannot be applied to the character or the reader, because somebody else that is initiating it.

When a book is as popular as Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey, it is important to investigate why; by finding recurring themes or characteristics, we can also find underlying topics and discussions in society as a whole. On the surface, Twilight is a mediocre book for preteen girls about adolescence and vampires. But its characters spark debate, and Bella’s merits as a role model are still unclear. Her submissive character and her relationship with the more domineering Edward is an important aspect of the series, and a jumping point for James to develop Fifty Shades of Grey. The latter eliminates the fantastical aspect of supernatural creatures, and extends the submissive female character into an erotic novel, which sparked discussions about sexuality among women who wouldn’t normally chat about bondage and sado-masochism.  Girls and women should not necessarily strive to be like these characters, but should nonetheless observe and question their values and qualities.