Safewording! Kinkphobia and gender normativity in Fifty Shades of Grey

This article considers the recent publishing phenomenon, E.L. James's Fifty Shades trilogy, from what may be termed a 'sex-critical' perspective. That is, it evaluates, without endorsing, the differing responses to the trilogy issuing from both sex-positive and radical feminist perspectives. Further, it subjects to equal scrutiny the ways in which the trilogy and discourses about it represent both BDSM practices and the rituals of 'vanilla' heterosexual romance/marriage. It concludes that both the trilogy and kinkphobic mainstream responses to it collude in rendering invisible the ethically and politically problematic aspects of heteronormative courtship narratives ending in marriage and reproduction by othering and scapegoating non-normative practices such as those included under the BDSM umbrella.