A man here. I realize that it's a convention in romance novel writing, but what is it with billionaires? From what I can see it seems like the most common trope in stock characters (at least for an American female audience) is the cowboy and the billionaire. From a man's standpoint, it's just kind of baffling. Are there any romance novels where the man is, say, a painter or writer? A poet or something?
shareAs an author and a romance novelist, I must admit I am guilty of the billionaire thing. The sulky, unattainable, billionaire bad boy. They are always billionaires because the bad boy needs power. And what gives him power is money. It's about the woman getting what she desires. And women secretly desire the man with power. Look at all the mobster theme erotic stories.
I do have a novel where the romantic lead is a Chef. And interestingly, it's my highest rated book. Another where the heroine is a spy and the romantic lead is some wealthy (not a billionaire) man she must protect from assassins (don't laugh).
The other three novels feature billionaire love interests. A foreign businessman, a billionaire a reviewer wrote was a stalker, and the last one is a Mediterranean prince.
There is an interesting quote by Melania Trump. Someone once asked her, "Would you have married Donald Trump if he wasn't rich?" to which she replied, "Would Donald Trump have married me if I wasn't beautiful?"
Women fantasize about billionaires. Men fantasize about beautiful women. A beautiful woman is already a rich woman.
The statement below is false.
The statement above is true.
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Do women generally fantasize about Donald Trump? Or Bill Gates? Or Warren Buffett? It seems like it's not just that he's a billionaire, but that he's a young, good-looking billionaire...
shareit's not just that he's a billionaire, but that he's a young, good-looking billionaire...
So true, dryogami. If E.L. James had described Grey as looking like Mark Zuckerberg or Mike Bloomberg I doubt that anyone would have bought the first book.
shareAnd why would they?..this is a fantasy right?...I have the usual suspects around all the time...this is late night,under the covers with a flashlight reading..
shareMuahahaha! Because they are WOMEN.
Billions of dollars, fame, power, influence, envy from other women, and an upgrade in the social ranking and status by being together with a billionaire make women wet as the Pacific Ocean!
I don’t fantasise about billionaires. I didn’t like Christian, he was really rude. Cute but I couldn’t take his controlling attitude and his anger issues
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You just put your finger on what the film was really about. It had little to do with his being obscenely wealthy. He was a control freak, who didn't want to fall in love. At first we think that Anastasia is shy, but in reality Christian is the one who is really afraid to be touched. He even spelled that out in the contract.
The problem is, Christian is really the central character of the story, but they tell us very little about him. It makes sense for him to be a perfect stranger at the beginning of the story, but by the time we got to the end, Anastasia should have been able to get through to him. But the film ends with the story unfinished. Other than his troubled childhood, they don't really make it clear why he can't get off without the BDSM ritual.
I have yet to see either of the sequels. Do they finally get around to explaining to us what this man's problem is?
BTW, words like cute and rude don't come to mind. Overprotective and over-possessive seem to fit better. It's ironic that the guy goes out of his way to make sure that she doesn't get hurt, only to turn around and whip her ass.
From what I can tell after having seen one movie, turning off the second, and reading the synopsis of the rest because damned if I'll watch the third... the real fantasy isnt nailing the handsome billionaire, or even marrying the handsome billionaire.
The real fantasy is gaining control over the handsome billionaire.
Because obviously a handsome billionaire can get just about any woman he wants, so the real fantasy is about dominating HIM, reshaping his tastes, and making him into the man you want him to be. And assuring yourself that once a woman has complete dominance of the relationship he'll never leave, no matter how many other women throw themselves at him.
"Because obviously a handsome billionaire can get just about any woman he wants..."
Christian may have THOUGHT that was true, but by the end of the first film, she had left him. '$$$ can't buy you love.'
"... so the real fantasy is about dominating HIM, reshaping his tastes, and making him into the man you want him to be."
Agreed. In a dominance & submission relationship, it's the 'sub' who is really in control. It's a bit like being a passenger in a car, but you're the one who tells the driver where to go. Of course, the driver literally has your life in his hands, so you have to TRUST him. And, because of this responsibility, he's really the one who is under greater stress. For the 'dom', it's really more about SELF-CONTROL, because it's his hand that moves the whip. And, ironically, for the 'sub' it's also about self-control.
The 'sub's uses the 'dom' in much the same way we use our right arm, to control sexual tension and the ecstatic moment of release. However, Anastasia is not really a 'sub'. She's one of many women who have little interest in BDSM, but they do it only to satisfy either their lover or a client.
I'm hardly an expert on D/S relationships, but they do seem largely centered around the sub's feelings, more than the dom's. All the dominance posturing exists to help the sub get their rocks off as extravagantly as possible.
And I would bet that the typical BDSM relationship involves LESS control over the other person, than a relationships in which one partner plays therapist and life coach, and does their best to "fix" the partner in self-serving ways. Because BDSM play is typically part-time, while someone like Anastasia will keep at it all their waking hours.
Yes the sequels are good and yes they do explain his issues and why he is the way he is. The books are better😁😁 try those
shareThey fantasize about him, because they're suckers who are a glutten for punishment.
shareThat cos' Christian is their ANIMUS. The masculine side of the human soul that all females are born with. It's the spark of their imagination, the source of raw, physical power, a sense of ambition and individuality, and the gateway to their subconscious desires.
Christian is good, but he's only half-way there. All the money in the world will not make him happy, and he knows it. He's got to get in touch with his spiritual nature, which in his case is feminine. His ANIMA is a source of compassion, empathy, a sense of aesthetics, and LOVE.
Like Ying and Yang, the animus and the anima complement one another, as do Dante and Beatrice, and, with patient nurturing, so will Christian and Anastasia.
I thought it was always carpenters and architects. Especially ones who haven't shaved for about five or six days and listen to Coltrane.
shareI mean yes, women look at money and social status. If you gonna start a family you need financial and social security or it gets a lot more difficult. An unreliable guy can just bail leaving the woman alone with the kids and no source of income enough to feed everyone. So the female is designed to look for the best opportunity in a guy regarding his social and economic status, more so than a man because man is not the one getting pregnant. That is not to say women will not fool around with a poet or a musician or a dirty vagabond, musicians fuck like crazy. But those are one night stands.
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