Heather Havrilesky recently took to the pages of The Baffler Magazine to remind us all that Fifty Shades of Grey is more than just Twilight fan fiction gone awry. Writing with grandiloquence, Havrilesky summarizes the Fifty Shades series as one one of alienation, psuedo-bondage and consumption.  In Fifty Shades of Late Capitalism, she argues:

“…What Fifty Shades of Grey offers is an extreme vision of late-capitalist deliverance, the American (wet) dream on performance-enhancing drugs. Just as magazines such as Penthouse, Playboy, Chic, and Oui (speaking of aspirational names) have effectively equated the moment of erotic indulgence with the ultimate consumer release, a totem of the final elevation into amoral privilege, James’s trilogy represents the latest installment in the commodified sex genre. The money shot is just that: the moment when our heroine realizes she’s been ushered into the hallowed realm of the 1 percent, once and for all.”

Read the full article here.