On the cover of Newsweek, Katie Roiphe considers what the wildly popular erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey says about the modern woman:
It is perhaps inconvenient for feminism that the erotic imagination does not submit to politics, or even changing demographic realities; it doesn’t care about The End of Men or peruse feminist blogs in its spare time; it doesn’t remember the hard work and dedication of the suffragettes and assorted other picket-sign wavers. The incandescent fantasy of being dominated or overcome by a man shows no sign of vanishing with equal pay for equal work, and may in fact gain in intensity and take new, inventive—or in the case of Fifty Shades of Grey, not so inventive—forms.
Dana Goldstein pushes back:
Sadomasochism is problematic if one partner is doing it just to please the other and feels hurt by it. But I don't think truly consensual S&M complicates women's demands for full equality, or provides evidence of some anti-feminist backlash among the urban educated class that is consuming work like "Girls," "Secretary" and Fifty Shades of Grey. Because many women now assume a certain level of egalitarianism at work and at home, they feel more comfortable experimenting sexually.
The Dish 