The premise of the book is problematic at best: a sociopathic, albeit handsome, Sicilian crime boss, with a penchant for throat-clutching sex play, kidnaps a ‘feisty’ hotel sales exec and gives her 365 days to fall in love with him. Inexplicably, she does – and a UTI-inducing amount of aggressive sexual congress ensues.
Dubbed the Polish Fifty Shades of Grey, 365 Days is the first instalment in a controversial erotic trilogy by Blanka Lipinska, revolving around a swarthy alpha male called Massimo, who racks up his first sexual assault on page two. Granted, he’s not your garden-variety dreamboat.
Still, 365 Days has become a global sensation. The novel has sold more than 1.5 million copies in Poland, and the English translation is available in Singapore, hot on the heels of the hit Netflix movie that premiered last year to howls of protest. Critics blasted the film for romanticising sexual violence, while Welsh singer Duffy – herself a survivor of abduction and rape – called on the streaming platform to ban it.
There’s no doubt 365 Days is ideologically on the nose and, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 0%, it’s cinematically not much chop either – Variety has called the “dumber-than-hair” movie a “thoroughly terrible, politically objectionable, occasionally hilarious Polish humpathon” – yet there are women who are lapping it up. One Twitter user seemed to speak for millions when she posted her video reaction to the orgasmic yacht scene: “This is disgusting,” she scoffed. “Give it to me now!”
At the other end of the fantasy spectrum is soapy period drama Bridgerton. The Regency romp is now Netflix’s biggest TV series ever, thanks in no small part to its lady-centred soft porn, which runs the gamut from languorous glove removal to feverish cunnilingus on a library ladder.
Mr Darcy in a wet white shirt was once enough to leave women breathless; now we have multiple shots of the Duke’s taut naked buttocks. He drops lines like, “I burn for you”, even workshops his lady’s pleasure: “Do you like this?” he asks a rain-soaked Daphne mid-foreplay. “Tell me what you want.”
Sexologist and relationship expert Nikki Goldstein suggests that the current craze for sexed-up pop culture is proof that women’s erotic desires are finally claiming centre stage.
“The bigger picture is that female sexuality is now at the forefront, it’s in the mainstream,” she says. “We’re seeing this idea of thinking about female pleasure and providing for it.”
