Freud based his theory
on Fetishism by analyzing men who “suffered” from fetishism based of off
childhood trauma which affected their sexuality. This theorist contends that “an investigation
of fetishism is strongly recommended to anyone who still doubts the existence
of the castration complex or who can still believe that fright of the sight of
the female genital for some other ground—for instance, that it is derived from
a supposed recollection of the trauma of birth” (Freud 843-844). E.L. James’s character of Christian Grey in
her erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey
is the embodiment of Freud’s argument that men with fetishes are not
unnaturally fearful of castration but simply satisfy curious sexual cravings
which have become distorted due to vast types of childhood emotional damage . While Freud was bound by censorship from
presenting his case studies to the public, James suffers no such limits and
presents Christian Grey as a fetishist who uses rough sex to cover for his own
mother’s lack of a penis as he contracts participants in his kinkiness in order
to smooth the way for the acceptance of his addiction.
Through an obsession
with sadomasochism, Grey works through childhood issues of abandonment by
acting as a sexual dominant to ease his way into sexual relationships,
achieving sexual satisfaction through pain as a replacement for a birth-mother
who could not save him as a child. E.L.
James describes Christian Grey‘s childhood as a nightmare due to the neglect of
a mother that he labels “the crack whore” and the abuse suffered at the hand of
his mother’s pimp. James writes: While
Grey is a young billionaire, seemingly leading the perfect life, most of his
peers do not realize that he is unable to maintain intimate relationships with
women other than those he contracts through a BDSM contract. He stipulates that he is not to be touched by
his “lovers” as his body and mind still suffer the stress of his childhood
upset. Freud stresses that “the fetish
is the substitute for the penis…the fetish is a substitute for the women’s (the
mother’s) penis that the little boy once believed in and—for reasons familiar
to us—does not want to give up” (Freud 843).
Christian Grey loved his mother deeply as a child, but she could not
protect him from abuse as her drug addiction incapacitated her. The metaphorical penis that Grey does not
want to relinquish in this situation is the power that the bearer of the penis secures
as armor against feeling pain both physical and mental. His activities in BDSM relationships allow
Christian to fulfill his longing for the rough contact he feels he deserves to
shelter himself from hurt he endure when his mother did not have a “penis” to
shield him.
Freud reasons that those
who are dominated by fetishes “are quite satisfied with it, or even praise the
way in which it eases their erotic life” (Freud 841). Christian Grey does not regret his forays
into contractual, abusive relationships as his lack of emotional attachments
and viewing his fetish as a business arrangement paves the way for his acts of
unnatural kinkiness. One of the rules
for obedience when entering into Christian’s world is that “the submissive will
obey any instructions given by the Dominant immediately without hesitation or
reservation in an expeditious manner.
The submissive will agree to any sexual activity deemed fit and
pleasurable by the Dominant excepting those limits outlined in hard limits”
(James 2965). The women in his sexual
life leave the method of his sexual urge fulfillment due to the business- like
nature that the pact between themselves and Grey affords their relations. This character is guaranteed to always have a
willing party to his ministrations and the women involved no that they will not
be pushed beyond any “hard limits” stipulated in their agreement.
Freud states about the
men he studied that “for obvious reasons the details of these cases must be
withheld from publication” (Freud 841), however, E.L. James’s is not bound by
the same censorship with stymied Freud in his essay. In her novel Fifty Shades of Grey, James writes the character of Christian Grey
as if she is personifying the description of Freud’s fetish-bound case
studies. Though Grey suffers from
emasculation due to his mother’s lack of power, or “penis” to prevent his abuse
as a child, he uses his perversity to deal with said abuse while fulfilling his
dark obsession with causing pain to a willing participant. While Freud was bound by censorship and was
unable to share the stories of the men featured in his essay “Fetishism”, James
picks up where the psychologist leaves off and examines what happens when the
sufferer of a fetish falls in love.
Works Cited
Freud, S. (2010). Fetishism. In V. B. Leitch, The
Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (pp. 841-845). New York: W.W.
Norton & Company.
James, E. (2011). Fifty Shades of Grey. Texas:
The Writer's Coffee Shop.
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