Author E.L. James has often insisted that "Fifty Shades of Grey" is wildly popular not because of its titillating trappings of transgression, but because it tells a simple love story for the ages. But this is a romance for a particular kind of age — a time of growing inequality. The social order is breaking up and leaving massive human wreckage in its wake. Dreams of love turn into fantasies of power — who has it and what they can do to those who don't have it.
When security vanishes and social bonds break down, fictional characters enter the new (ab)normal, which can often involve whips, chains and men in expensive suits with mysterious smiles. The film version of the first book of "Fifty Shades" is less a shout against the torment than a whimper — or, to be more precise, a lovesick giggle.
Other ages with pronounced power inequities have given rise to vivid sadomasochistic fantasies, such as the 18th-century novels of the populist-minded Marquis de Sade, whose tales of pain and bondage resonated during a time when the French propertied classes had their boots firmly on the necks of the proletariat. Dreams of transgression become fantasies of liberation from brutal socioeconomic forces.