I don’t think the 50 Shades audience is looking for manly men. This thing started off as Twilight slash fic, that’s a subsection of fan written fiction for people who don’t think the original material was smutty enough. It got popular enough that some publishing house got the bright idea to scrape the serial numbers off (change all the character names) and publish it. None of the males in Twilight (and therefore Shades) are particularly manly, they’re all about the “sensitive immortal love” craved by dingbats that never really grew out of their Disney movie phase.
There is an interesting dynamic, that’s been commented on by many comedians, on the difference between how men and women behave in strip clubs. Women are all about the wild crazy party, men are more... contemplative in their lust.
50 Shades of Gray is directed at women
the same sort who like Romance novels and Vampires
FYI Slash refers to m/m or f/f “romance.” Which is hugely popular with the hags & definitely not my bag. 50 shades of crap is BDSM-Lite for old ladies and repressed housewives without imagination.
The feministas got really pissed at the old, bodice-ripper “rape without consent” books (despite the fact that, yes as trashy as they were, they were well-written, mostly historically accurate epics with heroines who kicked metaphorical ass). 50 Shades and similar books are popular because they “empower” the Mary-Sue heroine, since she gives verbal/written permission to be “raped”/spanked/tied-up/whatever.
Modern females like this because A)The heroine is in “control” because it’s what she wants & B)The dark mysterious covers give them the illusion of reading a “respectable” book.
Meh, give me oldies like Rosemary Rogers “Wicked Loving Lies” or Christine Monson’s “Stormfire.” Crazy plots, euphemistic sex-scenes and loads of fun. Romance readers read to fill a “hole” in their lives; I read them for the adventure not the amateurish sex, so all the book s I read are 30-20 years old.