No, because of your theory that all the people who bought FSG didn't learn anything of their own sexuality because of it.
Not exactly what I said. In fact, I stated that it was indeed possible to learn something even from very bad writing.
My guess is that the very young (ages 14 and under) readers of FSG perhaps --and I mean: perhaps--first learned of BDSM through FSG. Older than that? I would find that astonishing. Keep in mind I was raised a fairly sheltered small town girl from the middle of nowhere on the northern edge of the bible belt, a generation or more before you and long before the internet. I'm pretty sure I would have gafawed pretty hard at FSG back then. If I hadn't gotten bored before the end of the first chapter.
But hey, I (kinda) get the whole 'you are the first one to make me feel this way' appeal or at least that it's a thing for some people, and if that pretense turns you on, then good for you.
I think there's no book in history that has introduced more people to BDSM than that book. We can think what we will of that. But talking to new people in the scene, this is a topic that keeps re-appearing. Then they most often go right into talking about how bad it is. But that's not a contradiction.
And I think that you are one of those people who doesn't really get how long people have been fucking or the tremendous variety of ways that people have been doing it for millennia before you were born.
Look, what I think is that FSG is a pop culture fad, and frankly, one that's pretty faded in the US. It's a reference point at a bar or party, just as for some people, talking about LOTR is a reference point or Star Wars or Star Trek. Because it is/was (in the US) a trending bit of pop culture, it's a pretty easy way to start a certain kind of conversation with someone you don't know well. Probably in a bar. It's silly as even pop-lit and bad as an intro to BDSM. It's all kinds of badly written fantasy--and I used to read my share of bodice rippers back in the day when I was too poor to have a television and too far from the nearest library to walk and pick up a decent book very often and so relied on the occasional bodice ripper from the local drug store on the corner.
I think it is the fantasy: a beautiful, worldly, sexually experienced and insanely rich, damaged man falls inexplicably in love with a very average English Lit major and she heals him through the magic of her pure pure love. The details are actually very cursory and not well done at all, even the high points of the plot. The only explanation I can come up with for its success (book series/films) is that the internet and mass media has done a tremendous disservice to kids' developing appreciation for good writing and literature.
People can learn lots of valuable things about themselves from bad books. Step one is figuring out what turns you on. Step two is figuring out a way to get it in a way that's realistic, and how to do it safely. FSG only deals with the first part.
Indeed, people can learn a lot about a lot of things from even bad books.
See: I wrote that people can learn a lot from bad books.
I think there's more to it. People often want a socially accepted excuse (in their own heads) before daring to peer into this forbidden box. BDSM is mostly just playing around with various taboos. People mostly like it because it feels wrong in various ways. Most often in harmless and cute ways.
I don't really agree. I think that BDSM is about the very close association of pain/pleasure on one level and also about relinquishing any responsibility for pleasure: yours or your partners, assuming you are the submissive. And also about anger. And power. I realize that for some people, those are powerful turn ons. But they aren't universally so.
All the stuff you're listing is things that allow readers to tell themselves that there's a valid excuse to get turned on by it in spite of not being into BDSM. But they are. They just haven't admitted it to themselves.
Look, you clearly didn't read the link I made to the blog about the books. If you had, you'd notice that the sex is never once described. It's beside the point in a way. The BDSM is rather beside the point except that it's sex. It could be any other kind of sex in that setting. The BDSM just gave it a bit of notoriety and grabbed the attention of some publishers and film makers, as if it were new or original or...of any decent quality at all.
And of course, everybody would be into it if the setting is context would be perfect. It deals with too universal human traits not to. The reason why most people still aren't is of course down to practicality and the degree as to which they need to make an effort. I think that's what the popularity of FSG proves.
Say what? I honestly don't think I'm following. It seems to me that you think that everyone is secretly into BDSM and just wants an excuse to admit it? No. They're not. Honestly. Another thing is that a fantasy is one thing and might be a big turn on. Making that fantasy reality can be a terrible turn off/abhorrent.
I agree that FSG is horrendous manual to guide anybody into a BDSM lifestyle. But those books hasn't made any claims to be that.
No, the books didn't claim that. You sure seemed to take it that way.
You seem to see it as a gateway/intro. I don't. At least not for anyone over the age of 14, if that old.
Also, where were you when I was 10? You could have saved me so many bruises and trips to hospitals. At some point I managed to convince myself I was a monkey from watching nature shows. That didn't end well.
Probably trying to keep my own children from doing too much damage re-enacting scenes from Star Wars or LOTR or GI Joe.
When I was 10, I spent my summers literally swinging on grape vines, if not through a jungle, through a nice woods.
Don't forget his perfect "Adonis" physique.
Mentioned.
So what do you think FSG was about, and why it was popular?
Making money.
There are virtually no romantic movies made any more. This was a romance. It had all the elements: a beautiful (but doesn't know it) and very bright, well educated but ordinary young woman by total accident is brought into contact with an impossibly beautiful, impossibly wealthy and powerful, yet sadly, damaged! slightly older and much more experienced man who instantly is drawn to her! She heals his damage through her (mild) insistence that he not (continue to) hurt her physically, meanwhile traveling to all sorts of exotic locations, in beautiful apartments, with fabulous wardrobes. He falls in love with her, cannot do without her! She leaves! He fetches! She loves him back! And sex. The sex is for titillation only.
Really, it's a low rent and much less interesting and well done To Catch a Thief, with some mild kink thrown in to take the place of any thinking at all. Some minor switch ups: Grace Kelly is fabulously wealthy in To Catch a Thief and does more of the pursuing. Also, To Catch a Thief has a bit of humor thrown in. Oh, and much better acting to go along with the much better writing.
It's almost insulting that you would think a 67 year old nurse would think that sex is primarily about reproduction. Did you forget that I mentioned that two of my 80 year old patients were trying to have sex. Unfortunately, the guys didn't have any Viagra and they needed it. But, sex is about a whole lot more than intercourse, so maybe there is hope. 
And frankly, if anyone was reading that rot because they genuinely wanted to explore BDSM, Fifty Shades is worse than bad porn. It is downright dangerous as an "educational tool"
