The Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, by EL James, have become recognized world wide and are now on the cusp of becoming even more popular with the first novel, Fifty Shades of Grey's debut as a movie.
With the film's debut looming predominately women and adolescent girls from around the globe are getting more and more excited and even choosing to see it's premiere over the traditional valentine's date night.
However, do all women know what they are actively buying into in fantasizing about and praising these novels and film? As this week's reading pointed out, the problem with romance novels is that while the specifics of the female-male relationships may be diverse, the "patriarchal attitudes and structures" (Radway 1983, 53) are not. Even in the film's trailer, in less than 2.5 minutes, "a women's journey to happiness and fulfillment" is constructed under the guidance obedience of a man. So as we devour the text's of this fiction, is it disgust and anger that we unearth, or has capitalism and ideology won once more with feelings of desire, praise and lust for the plot-line?
As many scholarly researches have noted, the link between romance fiction, patriarchy and capitalism is great. However, one researcher, Jeanne Dubino, term's it best as the "Cinderella complex" in their essay on how popular culture constructs romance. There is a formula for romance novels and it can be traced back to patriarchy, masculinity, obedience and wealth.
Radway, Janice. "Women Read the Romance: The Interaction of Text and Context." Feminst Studies 9, no. 1 (Spring 1983): 53-78.
Dubino, Jeanne. "The Cinderella Complex: Romance Fiction, Patriarchy and Capitalism." Journal of Popular Culture 27, no. 3 (Winter, 1993): 103. http://ezproxy.rollins.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/195367562?accountid=13584.
Yes, absolutely. But Radway's intervention here is that it can ALSO be traced to a market created by women's counterpublics. In other words, romance novels may be about male domination and power, but they are ALSO about female search for fulfillment, personal self actualization, and sexual desire and power.
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