1 Yes, I did read the Twilight books, too, and no, I’m not a closeted romance fan. I suppose I’d gotten used to the movies’’characterization of Bella and had forgotten just how wimpy and annoyingly naïve she was in the books. I reread the last book recently and realized I greatly preferred the screenwriter’s version of Bella. But I digress: Ana is just as annoyingly naïve as Bella was, except it’s worse, because she’s graduating from college with a high school girl’s experience and sensibilities—a very immature high school girl’s experience and sensibilities.

2 As you may imagine, Ana was not the character with whom I, personally, identified.

3 For a lot of erotic romance folks, you need an alpha male to sweep the main character off her feet. A submissive man who craves the application of a woman’s itchy palm applied to his needy backside, among other acts, is not as romantic as the reverse, it would seem.

4 A lot of romance purists don’t think there should be any sex in romance, much less the amount ladled into the Fifty Shades books.

5 “He’s Just Not That Into Anyone” and “They Know What Boys Want.”

6 “Women Falling for Fifty Shades of Degradation,” Gina Barreca, the Hartford Courant, May 3, 2012.

7 http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/fifty-shades-of-
grey-giving-bondage-a-bad-name-20120709-21rm3.html.

8 http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/07/10/f-50-shades-of-grey-bdsm.html.

9 http://www.purefreedom.org/blog/?p=320.

10 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ny_gals_learning_
the_ropes_at_fifty_sVWWKeksj9WKUto2ITg1KK.

11 http://www.wiredforstory.com/fifty-shades-of-story-vs-%e2%
80%9cwellwritten%e2%80%9d/.