Fifty Shades of Pleasure

Have you heard about Fifty Shades of Grey? If not, welcome back from vacation! E.L. James's amazingly popular erotic e-book has launched two sequels and announced the arrival of a new literary genre dubbed "mommyporn" due to its popularity with suburban mothers. The Fifty Shades trilogy follows a young woman named Anastasia as she's inducted into the kinky world of bondage and domination by dreamy millionaire Christian Grey (hence the title). The books have captured the top three slots on the New York Times bestseller list and nabbed a movie deal, and they're only just now coming out in print.

The LA Times devotes a lengthy article today to the Fifty Shades phenomenon, and we are prominently featured. The piece begins:

The staff of the Pleasure Chest, a high-end West Hollywood sex shop, were first tipped to the "Fifty Shades of Grey" phenomenon by their accountant, who noticed a curious spike in sales a few weeks ago. New customers had been drawn to the store after reading the erotic novel about a young woman's submissive sexual relationship with a wealthy businessman, and wanted some products described in the book.

It's true! Fifty Shades fever has led to increased demand for bondage rope, blindfolds, kegel balls and crops -- all items featured in the books' steamier passages.

"We've had all these women coming in saying, 'Where do you keep your mommy porn?'" said Kristen Tribby, director of creative development and strategy at The Pleasure Chest. "Or a man will come in and say, 'My wife's reading this book. She attacked me three times last week. I've been married for 20 years and we rarely have sex three times in one week....' It is kind of opening up their sex life."

So, why Fifty Shades and why right now? There are a lot of opinions on the mommyporn phenomenon. Newsweek's cover story links the apparent rise in fantasies of sexual submission to women's increasing economic power, while The Nation argues there's nothing new about the popularity of sadomasochism.

What we do know is that women are more curious than ever about trying some bedroom bondage of their own. So, we've created Fifty Shades of Pleasure, a new workshop to help Fifty Shades fans and bondage beginners make their fantasies come true. The workshop is free of charge, and open to couples or singles of all experience levels, genders and orientations. We're also offering Fifty Shades of Pleasure to private parties and groups.