I’ve been reading some pretty interesting articles and following up on the Gian Ghomeshi case. In school, while all my classmates were into the Hardy Boys, Biggles, and Nancy Drew, I would read all the Perry Mason, Agatha Christie, law, crime and detective fiction I could lay my little hands on. I guess growing up on that literature has equipped me with an analytical and fairly accurate sense of being.

When ‘Fifty shades of Grey’ came out a couple of years ago and made it to the bestseller lists I wondered what catapulted it into that category. Having entered the book publishing business as an author that very year I wanted to see why and what made this trilogy of sadism and masochism pornography so successful. So with a lot of trepidation, and I mean it (because it is not my kind of read, or will ever be) I ventured into the first book. Suffice to say that I got through all three books in the time it takes to read one. You guessed correctly I managed to skim through the garbage—600, or more pages of bondage, female degradation and brutality, kink and fetishism whips and chains. By the way my wife borrowed the books from our single female Catholic neighbor next door—that was probably more shocking than the book itself that she, a Sunday church-goer who never uttered a single blasphemy or a bad word in her entire life was sucked into the marketing strategy of the book. Incidentally the wife wanted to have a go at the porn-pulp and managed to do the same thing that I did. She finished it in even a lesser time than me.

Why did the book escalate into such a success story? It’s simple, really. As human beings we are curious and tend to watch everything from the sidelines. Cases in point: reality TV, the news, ultra-violent films, and TV series. None of us, or maybe a very small percentage of us will have witnessed a horrific accident, robbery, murder or crime in our lifetimes. The same rule of thumb applies to sex that is outside of the normal realm of things. The term ‘curiosity killed the cat’ is just a saying. Because for the most part we tend to lead our senses—especially our eyes and ears into dangerous areas that could, and would affect our minds…and thinking. In no way am I implying that Gian Ghomeshi would have read ’50 shades of Grey’ and influenced himself to do the things he did. Or rather the women he did it to imply what he subjected them to, including the slapping, pulling of hair and neck throttling. For crying out loud Mr. Ghomeshi is far older so his influences could have come from deeper and probably far darker areas. I will not be surprised that akin to a Pickton who has his book out, Ghomeshi (just to pay off his lawyers fees) may soon follow suit. But in many ways his actions mirror the fictional character in the book Mr. Grey.

Which brings us back to the real world, and I asked a group of women what they thought about being verbally abused, beaten, or subject to a man’s brutality. By the way, many of them had read the book. I got my answers—50 shades of grey is so far removed from reality, it’s just the kink in a writer’s imagination.   And as one bright woman remarked after seeing the before and after pictures of the author it sure as hell got her a good stomach stapling surgery, nip and tuck with all the money she has earned so far. Here are the remarks, many of them were repetitive but here are some of the best ones, straight from the mare’s mouth:

“If my man subjected me to any of that brutality, I would do a Bobbit on him.” Vanessa, 32

“As for me, sex is never rough and degrading. I actually hated that book and voiced my opinion to all my friends. I wasn’t going to make that author richer.” Clare, 28

“First of all I was shocked that this book was written by a woman. I double checked the cover to see whether it was written by a man. She sure has degraded us as sisters.” Roopa, 44

“As soon as I read that book I donated it to Value Village, I wasn’t going to let my boyfriend get a hold of it because I know it would have created a fantasy world for him to explore. Any which way I was not going to be a part of it.” Susanna, 26

“Sorry I did not buy the book, or watch the film. But my colleague told me that she was put off by the way that woman (in the book, and film) was treated. It deeply offended her.” Nalini, 37

Jude Paul Fernandes is the author of ‘Frost Bites’ available at the Toronto Public Library. He can be followed on Twitter @JudePaulFerns