Ranking States by Kinkiness (and the Kinkiest Ones Are So Not What You Think They Are)

(Image credit: Getty)

published 28 February 2015

Although it has been shown to cause insanity in directors and vomiting, Fifty Shades has one good thing going for it: It's gotten people thinking and talking about topics that are usually off-limits in Polite Society.

This is precisely what more than 120,000 people did when they took BrainFall.com's sexual-adventurousness quiz, the anonymous results from which were then averaged and plotted on a map using gradients of the one color that shall not be named.

The rundown: Hawaii, Alaska, Maine, and Idaho are all rather vanilla, while Nebraska, South Carolina, Nevada, and Mississippi are into, shall we say, more alternative activities. Alabama takes the Jamie Dornan-shaped cake, though, with 38 shades of [redacted] out of a possible 50.

So *that* explains why ticket pre-sales were so high in the Bible Belt. Find out how your state measures up below.

Infographic 'How many shades of grey is your state?'

You should also check out:

The Inside Scoop from a 'Fifty Shades of Grey' Stuntwoman

The Joy of Submission

5 'Fifty Shades' Sex Scenes That Aren't in the Movie but Totally Should Be

Chelsea Peng is a writer and editor who was formerly the assistant editor at MarieClaire.com. She's also worked for The Strategist and Refinery29, and is a graduate of Northwestern University. On her tombstone, she would like a GIF of herself that's better than the one that already exists on the Internet and a free fro-yo machine. Besides frozen dairy products, she's into pirates, carbs, Balzac, and snacking so hard she has to go lie down.