By Shrishti Bhatia
Bondage. Discipline. Submission. Domination. Machismo. These words together form the concept of BDSM around which the erotic romance novel Fifty Shades of Grey revolves. BDSM involves practices, sexual and otherwise, performed by two people in which one person tends to be the dominant character whereas the other person is of submissive nature.
The word ‘sex’ is considered taboo in Indian culture. When you utter this word aloud, heads turn towards you with glaring eyes. Hence the concept of BDSM is not widely accepted in India whereas, in other parts of the world, it is practiced on a wide base.
The practice existed even back in the ninth century BC, which is a clear sign that it is an ancient practice. With time, new additions and rules have been added to this practice which is followed by the submissives and hence satisfies the dominant character.
E.L James successfully threw light on BDSM in her first edition, Fifty Shades of Grey, but failed to maintain this crux throughout the trilogy. By the end of the third edition, the trilogy loses its charm and turns out to be like any other romantic novel where in the end love wins by overcoming all obstacles.
BDSM doesn’t involve love; love has absolutely no connection with it as it’s simply a practice meant for pleasure which has no emotional aspect to it. The novel began with this spectacular concept but ended with a fairy tale ending.
Can the concept of BDSM lead to love?
The question that arises is what should the readers believe in? Can the concept of BDSM lead to love? Or was BDSM taken up in Fifty Shades just to gain the limelight and give a kinky twist to the love story? If that’s so, then why did this concept diminish in the trilogy, leading it to an ever-expected ending? Well, that’s up to the readers to decide.
Ideally, the concept of BDSM should have been central to the trilogy. The story began with this concept and it is a classic example of telling people that in today’s world, emotions value less in our lives and everyone derives satisfaction from dominating others. Gone are the days when ‘happily ever after’ existed.
The book received great appreciation and has been in demand, especially among the youth. The readers are looking forward to the movie based on the book which is scheduled to release on 13th February 2015 in India. It would be interesting to see the state in which this movie hits the theatre screens in India as the concept of BDSM, which involves a lot of sexual activity, would make our Censor Board quite unhappy.
