By Peter Berton

PHOENIX – Call it the Fifty Shades of Grey effect: Suddenly, people across the U.S. are embracing BDSM like never before … and nowhere is the phenomenon more apparent than in Arizona’s capital city.

At least that’s what the website SeekingArrangement.com — an online meeting place that connects generous guys with willing women — reported. Based on data collected from members, SeekingArrangement concluded the number of Phoenix-area women seeking BDSM “sugar daddies” has risen by an astounding 96.2 percent since the release of E.L. James Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.

San Francisco, Calif., trails Phoenix only slightly, with a 95-percent increase in “sugar babies” who seek well-heeled companions for dominant or submissive relationships, SeekingArrangement noted. Detroit took third place nationally with a 50-percnt increase, followed by Indianapolis with a 49.7-percent rise and Las Vegas with an increase of 44.4 percent.

Interestingly, America’s porn capital, Los Angeles, managed only a measly 10th-place showing with a 33.3-percent jump.

Why the sudden spike in women seeking Fifty Shades of Grey-inspired relationships?

“Christian Grey represents what women in today’s society want in a partner,” SeekingArrangement founder Brandon Wade told SFWeekly’s blog. Sought-after qualities include “financial stability, consideration, mutual benefit and sexual adventure, which is why many women are surprised to see that our dating website, where they can find their own version of the fictional Mr. Grey, exists.”

Are women finding manacles at the end of their rainbows on SeekingArrangement? Apparently, yes.

“Using data from exit polls, the site found that 37 percent of women claimed to have found their ‘Christian Grey’ and 62.5 percent of men claimed they found relationships with women similar to [protagonist] ‘Anastasia Steele,’” SFWeekly noted. “That equates to a lot of love dungeons.”