Books I found... rather disappointing. Pt.3.

Exit to Eden by Anne Rice under the pseudonym of Anne Rampling

   What’s the thing with pseudonyms if everyone knows who you are? On the other hand, to write this kind of BDSM erotica in the 80’s when you’re known for writing vampire novels you’ll need a pseudonym. Back then it might even have been a big secret as to who stood behind the name of Rampling.

   But I know what you’re thinking, Fifty Shades of Gray right? This is nothing of the sort because while Fifty Shades is nothing more than sexual violence, Exit to Eden is much of actual BDSM. “Consensual adults” are our key words here.

[WARNING – THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS]

   The book starts out really interesting when we meet Lisa, the head dominatrix of an exclusive BDSM resort called The Club, and Elliot, a man whose interest in things that scare him has pointed him in the direction of wanting to become a sex slave at The Club. To his great joy, The Club chooses him for a contract and Lisa can’t pass on the chance to train him. There’s undeniable chemistry between the two that intensifies throughout the book and finally leads to love.

   Whereas I thought that since Lisa is the Dom and Elliot the Sub in this story, quite opposite the normative male-female relationship, the story might turn gender stereotypes on end and challenge them a bit. At first it did when Lisa had the upper hand... and the whip. On the island. And then I started to notice little things that made all the differences. As a very small but, to me, irritating example: Rice uses the words “cock” and “sex” to describe genitals. Cock is okay, but vagina/pussy isn’t? Dude! Female genitals aren’t any more hush-hush than male or any other gender’s. Further into the book as Lisa and Elliot’s feelings develop we notice how Lisa is described in continuously weaker terms and normatively feminine words. In short, she goes from fierce Dominatrix to emotional girl.

   I was disappointed.

   Of course, at the end Lisa breaks apart due to her newfound love and shows her true and weak self to the strong and manly Elliot. I’m not joking, there’s a scene where a panicking and crying Lisa locks herself up in a bathroom because of a cockroach and Elliot has to kick down the door (after having been a complete asshole to her) to get her out at all.

   After all, Exit to Eden turns out to be ruled by stereotypes. At the end Lisa herself confirms that she’s ashamed about her sexual desires and what she does at The Club – it embarrasses her to be a sexual creature with sexual desires , even more so because it’s got to do with BDSM. It’s heartbreaking for me to find a book that pose as non-normative but turns out to confirm the myth about the chaste woman and the man as driven by his sexual desires.

[SPOILERS END.]

   In short, Exit to Eden is a nicely written book that starts off well but dives right down into a deep pothole of stereotypes and normative values. But I find a shimmer of light in my distress and that is that throughout the book you’ll never find a bad word about the BDSM lifestyle nor anything less than completely consenting adults. That comforts me.