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Seeing Someone Reading <em>Fifty Shades</em> On The Subway Isn't Creepy—But What <em>Is</em>?
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jul 12, 2012
Modified Jul 12, 2012
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jul 12, 2012
Modified Jul 12, 2012
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Photo by Lindsay Robertson
The Gray Lady is posing a question about the controversial Mr. Grey: "Is It Creepy to See Someone Reading Fifty Shades of Grey on the Subway?" While there are some creepy things about this phenomena—just one example is the people who recreate the sex scenes with dolls—reading the book in public isn't one of them. It actually might make you a little bad-ass, even. Lindsay Robertson spotted an earlier adopter of the series months ago, and created this inner monologue of the woman holding the book—"Yeah, bitch, I know you're taking my picture. Notice that I’m on PAGE THREE of this fucking thing. I'm just getting through the stupid exposition so I’ll be exactly at the first sex part when I go to bed later in my apartment that is much nicer than yours. I do.not.give.a.fuck. I am the coolest person in this city right now, and everyone on this train knows it." See, these women openly reading the BDSM book don't creep anyone out—they inspire! They embolden! And honestly, if the worst thing you see underground is someone reading a book, you are lucky... so lucky.
With that settled, what is the creepiest thing you can see someone reading on the subway? Some of our staff picks:
- The Illustrated Mein Kampf
- Everybody Poops
- A 15-year-old reading Fifty Shades Of Grey
- Anything from the Anthropodermic Bibliopegy genre
- The Pocket Book of Boners
- The Pop-Up Book of Sex
- American Psycho fan fic
- The Idiot's Guide to Upskirts
- Anything with a clown on it
- The Anarchist Cookbook—in fact, a tipster sent us this photo taken on the uptown D, noting the man holding it was intently mouthing along as he read it:
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50 shades of grey
book
creepy
fifty shades of grey
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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