50 Shades of Gray is directed at women
the same sort who like Romance novels and Vampires
I love old-school stuff where books were 500-700 pages long. The last one I read was "Texas Star" by Deana James written in '87. It's an awesome western about a Texan bounty hunter who tracks down a female killer in Mexico. Now that was a true woman and and true hero, with no "written contracts." The author dedicates to the book to Joel McCrea, Zane Grey, Hopalong Cassidy, John Wayne, etc., so it's a real western, and the only geldings are the horses.
But I am not a typical romance reader. I like the old trashy books that you'd have to hide the cover so no one would look at you oddly. Plus, as a married woman, I don't read for the sex; that's like a gourmet food-chef reading "Taste of Home" for recipes. :)
The old stuff actually had adventurous plots,was well-researched, and meticulously written. It's a shame women were shamed into despising them all because the men were...well, men.