Love it or hate it, Fifty Shades of Grey is having an impact on rope and accessories sales. I don’t recall hearing of similar phenomena from The Secretary, 9½ Weeks or the like but maybe 50 Shades is bigger? Who knows? It certainly seems to be sending out ripples.
“Oh, we’ve been selling rope to women,” says Clifton Kahn, owner of Lexington Hardware on the Upper East Side. “I’d say tenfold more rope than usual in the last six months. The women are definitely buying, and it’s still continuing.”
“It’s like a juggernaut,” says Babeland co-founder Claire Cavanah. “You’d be surprised to see how very ordinary these people are who are coming in. The book is just an explosion of permission for them to try something new in the bedroom.”
Of course, like most of us when we started out, they are often buying less than suitable materials, e.g. clothes lines. I know I did and executed some totally horrendous bondage when I began. Still, if it generates more interest all to the good. We should not forget that we all started from ignorance and not be elitist. The more we welcome into this kinky family the better in my opinion. Hopefully, it will provide the thing that has been missing in their lives and lead to a better understanding of what our world is really all about. Most importantly, I hope exposure to the reality will dispel some of the popular misconceptions that seem to feed the media.