My mother has not read a book, cover to cover, in about 10 years.
She has already finished volume one of the Fifty Shades trilogy and read some passages of it to her Fiancé. (Yes, I said Fiancé. She announced her engagement during Weekend One of the current Spring Mastery.)
My best bud asked for a copy of the trilogy, on her birthday. Her sister swiped it from her last weekend and swallowed it whole before Sunday night.
Saturday Night Live has done a hilarious sketch on the subject.
I have sent this book to more friends than any book since Eat, Pray, Love.
And every friend who has read it gets a conspiratorial glint in her eye, as she reveals her guilty pleasure.
What is up, Sisters?
Why are we sucking down 50 Shades… like a group of slightly delinquent junior high schoolers, smoking their very first cigarette in the back of the schoolyard?
Does it mean all women just want a little spanky spank spank?
Does it mean we are bondage deprived?
Or just depraved?
What is it that we are we hungry for—starving for—that 50 Shades both fills and opens, at the same time?

I have to lay it out, right now—I loved 50 Shades of Grey.
I read it slowly, in the bath, over a few weeks’ time.
It was pure fun. And it wasn’t yucky tawdry fun, either. Like when I read certain kinds of chick lit or People magazine.
It was uplifting. Satisfying. Like the way a great burger is satisfying if you have not had one in a while.
What the author captured so magnificently was this: great sex, wild sex, experimental sex, in a loving committed union, heals and transforms.
That any consensual sexual act, in a loving partnership, deepens the relationship.
That there is endless creativity and expression and exploration possible between two creative, open partners who share their deep truth, and give each other full expression of their desires and outrageous longings. That boring vanilla sex is like canned vegetables—so yesterday, so not necessary, so lacking in nutrients. That the empty actions of porn are hollow and dry without the heat of true intimacy and deep communication.
Transparency is sexy. Bringing everything you—good, bad, virginal, savage, wild, timid—to the relationship is a huge turn-on.
And living your full-out sensual truth with integrity is deeply transformative and healing.

Women have made a lot of progress in this culture. We have more opportunities, more voice in the workplace, more choices in how we spend our lives. But our sensual evolution has lagged sadly behind. Basically, our culture still gives women only two options: you can be a virgin, or a slut. And actually, the slut inside every woman is the real virgin. That virgin is what gets the most air-time. We parade around all day in our buttoned up corporate suits, or in sexless PTA meetings followed by Mommy and Me classes, carefully maintaining a lack of sensual aliveness in our daily lives. Take a ride on the subway, or peek inside a factory, if you want to see what I mean. And when that sensual side of a woman is buried, her life force dies. Every woman longs to have her sensual side live its full, vibrant expression. She wants her life to be an endless voyage of sensual unfolding and deepening sensual experiences. For a woman to really experience her own ‘50 Shades’ (which is what we all desire), she wants her sensual voice to get louder and prouder every day, more meaningful every day, and more valued every day, in whatever form serves her soul.
What did you think of E.L. James’ book?
Did you get inspired? Offended?
Did you read it secretly on your Kindle?
Or proudly; in your lounge chair at the swim club?
Do you feel like you live your 50 shades? Or is she trapped inside your virginal exterior?
Please respond below and let me know what you are thinking! And if you’ve got a girlfriend who hasn’t yet caught on to 50 shades…share this post.

With so much love and pleasure,
Mama Gena

P.S. 250 newly minted Sister Goddesses are getting ready to take flight at the graduation ceremony for Spring Mastery 2012! I’d love for you to come celebrate with us. Click here for all the details and to register. And if you want a taste of last year’s Mastery graduation, watch this video.

P.P.S. Got an appetite for next year’s Mastery program? Stay tuned for a very important announcement on Thursday…

photo: lizlinder.com