ABSTRACT
In a 2015 interview with Nadia Neophytou, E.L. James explains that the genesis of her Fifty Shades trilogy lies in two wildly different literatures (Newman, 2012). 1 Many are aware that the love story started as fan fiction of Stephanie Meyer’s (2006) teen-vampire series, Twilight, but the kink inspiration comes from Patrick Califia’s (1988) anthology of lesbian BDSM erotica, Macho Sluts (De Kosnik, 2015: 116). This juxtaposition of a mainstream runaway bestseller and a subcultural queer text gestures towards the ambivalence that characterises the representation of BDSM (bondage/discipline/sadomasochism) in pop culture more broadly.
