Jul 28

Ladies, Do You Really Read That Slow?

I haven’t read Fifty Shades of Grey. —Can you believe I just had to look up how to spell grey? A grown man and I can never remember if it’s an “e” or an “a”. — I don’t need to read another book to know that straight people have sex. I’m bombarded by that tidbit in most movies and books, “not that there’s anything wrong with that”. The bulk of the world is straight. Movie makers and authors want to make money, so they write about a topic to which most people can relate. Makes sense. I mention my reason for not reading this trilogy so that you’ll know that the specific theme of the Grey series doesn’t bother or offend me. Quite frankly, if Anastasia were instead, Andrew, then I’d probably read it.

While I haven’t read the books, I have followed various discussions about the trilogy. Apparently, a radio station in Ohio recently held a book burning for Grey. The DJs said that the biggest complaint from male listeners is

women get so obsessed with the books in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy that they’re neglecting their men.

Really?!? These men are feeling “neglected” because women are taking the time to read three short books? I realize most people aren’t speed readers but I can’t imagine it takes the average woman any considerable length of time to read those books. I could maybe understand this complaint if we were talking about Tolstoy’s nearly 600,000 word novel, War and Peace. I suspect one of three things is going on here:

these men are with women that have a serious reading deficit;
these are some insecure, needy dudes;
these men are in relationships that have much bigger issues than how long she spends reading Fifty Shades of Grey.