Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Confessions

I am reading Shades of Grey. There, I said it! Honestly I knew nothing about it until a friend posted a summer reading list on her FB page which included a title that read "What to read instead of Shades of Grey". And then as I was checking out a book at the library I glanced at the return shelf and saw Shades of Grey and immediately I felt a tug of homesick. This book is obviously so popular in America that it has become unpopular and I am clueless about it all. Nothing can make you feel further from your own culture. So I grabbed it without even looking at the back. Yes, that is right I had no idea what my sweet unadulterated mind was getting into.
And I was shocked. This is what America is reading? But if you know me you know I rarely ever put a book down once I start it.  Some part of me feels guilty for not letting the author finish the story. I feel like characters are just sitting there in purgatory until I crack the pages open once more. In the end, I liked it. It is a kinky Cinderella tale. Perhaps the sex scenes should have horrified me, but you know what actually horrified me?
The talk of feet. He removes her shoes and rubs his nose on her instep. He sucks her toes.  Multiple times she refers to his bare feet as sexy. I even find myself cringing as I type it. Perhaps if I was in the US it would not affect me so, but I am in India and here feet are dirty.  Not dirty like Fifty Shades is a dirty book, but down right gross.  Cracks like the Grand Canyon. Toe pads that look more like coral than actual skin. Yellow toenails. And the dirt.  I scrub my feet with a pumice stone every night just trying to break through the black layer that seems permanently attached.
Not that I can blame anyone, unless you count Mother India, who seems to want to drag us back into the earth by our feet. Many people here don't have shoes, so tough callused feet are a bonus on hot, hot pavement. Many people don't have access to water in their homes so taking time to scrub your feet with running water is a luxury.
So talk to me about spanking, cuffing, or sexual accessories, but please please do not talk to me about feet.  My sweet unadulterated mind can't take it.

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