It is a subject that has been long debated in the BDSM circles. Pretty much since the famous books became famous and started attracting a crowd to what was once a quite limited scene of kinksters. There is much criticism aimed at the book that any vanilla person has probably read about or heard about: that the book has nothing to do with actual BDSM, that the relationship between the main characters is not D/s, but abusive, that BDSM respects consent while the book discusses it in no way and that it is literary garbage. But I support it and believe it to be a good thing.