One feminist critic kicks "50 Shades" 60 ways!

I left out the Marxian bit:

"He bought her a car and sold her old one without asking that is theft and illegal. He bought her a laptop so he could spy on her, that is stalking. The man is a controlling, sick, pervert who thinks he can do whatever he wants because he is rich. Truly, vile."

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I don't read but it was my understanding that the book is a fantasy and not a dating manual.

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"Steele asked for a vanilla relationship based on love and he was not looking for love instead it was all about him and nothing was about what she wanted."

To paraphrase Blanche DuBois: Ferlinghetti, yes, only Mr. Ferlinghetti could run on so eloquently!

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The movie sucks because of the mediocre book, not because it's offensive. There's nothing wrong with S&M and BDSM. So many people on my facebook were complaining about how this film glorifies Sexism, domination and violence. LOL. They didn't even see the film. Christ, people.

The woman in the article doesn't understand the workings and complicated relationship that S&M entails. People like to be submissive in the bedroom and people like to be dominant. It gets them off. It usually never has ANYTHING to do with gender politics or sexism. It's just play.

Who gives a damn if someone wants to be spanked or whipped, as long as its consensual and no one is doing anything they don't want to do, then I could care less. No one has any right to judge someone based on their bedroom fun.

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Updated On: 2/17/15 at 09:43 AM

"The woman in the article doesn't understand the workings and complicated relationship that S&M entails."

Full disclosure: the writer and I have had such a relationship for years.

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I'm feeling triggered.

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Yeah, the book is offensive because Christian Grey is a manipulative, abusive jackanape who forces a younger woman into a BDSM relationship she knows nothing about and gives her no voice in it. The TLDR is that the sub is always in control in a safe S&M partnership but Anastasia has no say in anything in the trilogy.

The real message is just watch Secretary instead. Now there's an S&M/BDSM story with bite.

Updated On: 2/17/15 at 12:45 PM

Like all good fanfiction, it ends with a pregnancy and the flash forward is a happy vanilla life with a second pregnancy.

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I like Anne Rice's point better. Your point feels like mansplaining, like you're shaming women and telling them what they should and should not think is sexy.

Using the word "abuse" is abusive.

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Whatever the triology's arc, we now live in a culture that firmly believes all experience requires therapeutic resolution, preferably with attendant, politically correct epiphanies. In the spirit of this board, one might say we generally prefer "A Doll's House" over "Medea," i.e. learning the hard lessons then literally slamming the door on those who block us. The self must survive at all cost, wiser, with consciousness raised. If we have one collective fantasy it's that "healthy relationships" are our birthright and some sort of sad everybody-gets-a-ribbon reward for just hanging in. If only, right? Of course, in practice we all embrace self-deception and inadvertently inflict and accept pain (sometimes even intentional cruelty; sorry, Blanche) as a trade-off for being alive. Until the end noted above, these books may well have tapped into a desire to let everyone off the therapeutic hook, men and women. You can enjoy the ride because disregarding all efforts to Feel Better About Yourself is not only allowed, it's embraced.

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Updated On: 2/17/15 at 04:53 PM

I find the "ZOMFG SEXISM!!!" response to this movie slightly bizarre. Same with the Twilight series. From some people's reactions to them, you'd think they were written by some middle-aged male misogynist.

In fact, both were written by women and became massive worldwide hits read mostly by women. Checkout some of the articles about it on sites like Buzzfeed. It's scary! It's like there are just legions of people angry at men.... For a book that had nothing to do with men, and men the world over generally have absolutely no interest in!

I loved the Twilight series. It is about love. The actors have chemistry. It was fun! My problem with the film was the actors have no chemistry. The sex scenes are boring. The film is not entertaining and she was abused. She did not ask for this. She was abused.

It is a bad movie.

The Secretary was a better film.

Updated On: 2/17/15 at 06:37 PM