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50 Shades of Grey- The movie: Reviews

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Tesseract

Banned
I haven't read the book. I will not be watching the movie, so I cannot comment on how the relationship is portrayed.

However, the movie poster with the quote is not advocating rape. It is quoting a phrase and describing actions that are done by consenting adults all the time. I had a girlfriend who would say these things during sex: no, stop, etc... And she wanted me to ignore her and even threaten her with further actions (more tying, slapping, insults, etc...) She enjoyed this, wanted this, and CONSENTED to it.

That modified movie poster is suggesting that guys who indulge consenting females in this kind of 'fantasy' (I hesitate to use the word 'fantasy', as this is a more common desire of females than most realize...hence the popularity of 50 Shades of Grey), are rapists...and that is some bullshit.

what's your safety paragraph?
 

FatalT

Banned
Also for anyone claiming when a submissive says "No" that it's grounds for rape and a retraction of consent, you need to do more research on BDSM. "No" does not exist in the culture because of "safe words." During play, "No" only makes the act more pleasurable and fun.
 

Tesseract

Banned
Also for anyone claiming when a submissive says "No" that it's grounds for rape and a retraction of consent, you need to do more research on BDSM. "No" does not exist in the culture because of "safe words." During play, "No" only makes the act more pleasurable and fun.

what happens if you forget your safe word?
 

FatalT

Banned
I don't even know what you are trying to say or imply...

Tesseract has a hilarious knack for sardonic trolling. It's cute but best to be ignored.

It's also apparently popular to poke fun at anything women find enjoyable. I would expect nothing more from this forum.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
I haven't read the book. I will not be watching the movie, so I cannot comment on how the relationship is portrayed.

However, the movie poster with the quote is not advocating rape. It is quoting a phrase and describing actions that are done by consenting adults all the time. I had a girlfriend who would say these things during sex: no, stop, etc... And she wanted me to ignore her and even threaten her with further actions (more tying, slapping, insults, etc...) She enjoyed this, wanted this, and CONSENTED to it.

Yeah, I had a gf for many years who loved to be dominated. It was fun, and it really got her excited, so I had zero problems doing it. My current gf isn't into that kind of stuff so much.





:(
 

Dilly

Banned
Tesseract has a hilarious knack for sardonic trolling. It's cute but best to be ignored.

It's also apparently popular to poke fun at anything women find enjoyable. I would expect nothing more from this forum.

A terrible movie/book is a terrible movie/book regardless of which gender enjoys it.
 
Yeah, I had a gf for many years who loved to be dominated. It was fun, and it really got her excited, so I had zero problems doing it. My current gf isn't into that kind of stuff so much.





:(

I know right? It's fun to have a girl who wants that kind of action...and hard to go back to one who only enjoys 'standard' sex.
 

Karsha

Member
I dunno but all my female friends on FB seem to be mad hyped about this one, what's the deal with that, its the closest thing to a porn they can watch or smth? I don't get the hype
 

Angel_DvA

Member
Damn the movie got wrecked..

379e79a39d525eb942a6eb5c4e8112b3.png
 

Takuan

Member
The problem with 50 Shades is that it conflates BDSM and straight up abuse in some very disturbing ways. This isn't really a shock given that it is literally Twilight fan fiction and Twilight features an unhealthy as fuck primary romance, but it's problematic when things that are unhealthy and should be recognized as such are passed off as BDSM. The book never really acknowledges that the stuff going on is pretty fucked up, passing it off as OK because kink, and that's not good.

Edit: The movie has a chance to fix this, of course, but the books are problematic.

Wasn't it a wild success? Isn't it more problematic that there's a huge audience for this stuff?
 

FatalT

Banned
jokes aside, i am legitimately interested in this. is it completely 1st person, replete with heady narration?

I can't figure out how they've managed to make it work from the trailers but in the books it's completely first person. Anastasia has internal narration with herself, her subconscious, and her "inner goddess." From what I can gather, she seems schizophrenic and pretty fucked up herself but I haven't seen anyone else touch on that.

I mean sure, we all have internal monologues but the author makes Anastasia ACTUALLY HAVE a "devil on her shoulder" and an "angel on her shoulder."
 

Tesseract

Banned
I can't figure out how they've managed to make it work from the trailers but in the books it's completely first person. Anastasia has internal narration with herself, her subconscious, and her "inner goddess." From what I can gather, she seems schizophrenic and pretty fucked up herself but I haven't seen anyone else touch on that.

I mean sure, we all have internal monologues but the author makes Anastasia ACTUALLY HAVE a "devil on her shoulder" and an "angel on her shoulder."

that sounds radical, i hope they nail it
 

iammeiam

Member
And people can vote with their wallets. Fact is, seems like a lot of people don't really care about that.

Also, "passed off as BDSM" seems like a bizarre claim. There's no centrally-recognized BDSM standards authority, is there? The line between BDSM and abuse isn't clearly demarcated.

It features passages of him hitting her where she goes along with it, not because she's into it in any way shape or form, but because she doesn't want to piss him off. That seems pretty abusive.

Did you read the books? The whole time Anastasia's internal subconscious and thoughts believe Grey is fucked up and the acts he enjoys are fucked yo. Grey admits that he's "fifty shades of fucked up" and at the end of the first novel, Ana says she will have no part in his pleasures.

Try reading the books.

I've read major chunks of them (I'll admit to skimmingpast most of the porn), and while there's a surprising amount of reflecting on how fucked up it is that he's in to BDSM for books supposedly about BDSM, there's little long-term reflection on the actual problem. It's not fucked up because he gets off on spanking or whatever, it's fucked up because of the specific interactions between the pair.
But most of the reflection seems to center around how fucked up that specific kink is, and IIRC the ultimate resolution is that they have
an ultimately much more vanilla relationship. Christian's still a controlling fuckwad, though, which is totally cool.
essentially I feel like most of what the books focused on as problems weren't the actual problems.
 

FartOfWar

Banned
This is gonna sound like I'm taking the piss (I'm not) but does it contain major spoilers?

Let me a bit clearer too so we don't get too heated or derailing - I'm pretty comfortable as a woman seeing a woman's (EL James) take on her own fantasies, directed by a woman (Sam Taylor-Johnson). If people find it objectionable without having seen it, well, that's up to them. If I find it objectionable after I've seen it, I'm happy to say so.

But (and I say this as someone whose partner of 12 years knows a fair bit about this genre of fiction) I'm prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt and, hopefully, just enjoy some eroticism in the cinema for once.

You're a breath of fresh air in off topic where, at times, a leftist puritanism as sanctimonious as any bible thumper's predominates. The story Masquerade posted speaks to the spirit: fantasy is somehow normative; fantasy and reality are conflated at every turn provided its politically expedient. As silly as the book/movie strike me, they are far from frightening. Instead, it seems incredibly patronizing to assume that the millions of women who were drawn to the work are incapable of identifying their own erotic fantasies and then differentiating these from actual desires. According to wikipedia "50-91% of people surveyed on university grounds in various places in the USA admit to having had a homicidal fantasy." Nothing suggests these fantasies "shape what we become." OT is often a lot like taking a trip to your fundamentalist grandfather's house for the holidays, though you are not alone.
 

FartOfWar

Banned
Enjoy the movie, just don't confuse this with what BDSM actually is. This movie glorifies rape, abuse and violence towards women, regardless of who wrote, directed or produced it.

If you want to get into BDSM, hit me up in a PM, I can set you on the proper path towards a healthy and enjoyable relationship.

Jesus, if this isn't grade A "mansplaining" I don't know what is.
 

FatalT

Banned
It features passages of him hitting her where she goes along with it, not because she's into it in any way shape or form, but because she doesn't want to piss him off. That seems pretty abusive.



I've read major chunks of them (I'll admit to skimmingpast most of the porn), and while there's a surprising amount of reflecting on how fucked up it is that he's in to BDSM for books supposedly about BDSM, there's little long-term reflection on the actual problem. It's not fucked up because he gets off on spanking or whatever, it's fucked up because of the specific interactions between the pair.
But most of the reflection seems to center around how fucked up that specific kink is, and IIRC the ultimate resolution is that they have
an ultimately much more vanilla relationship. Christian's still a controlling fuckwad, though, which is totally cool.
essentially I feel like most of what the books focused on as problems weren't the actual problems.

I find it hilarious that the author spends the whole novel having Anastasia's subconscious calling her a ho for accepting Grey's gifts but then has him tell her not to feel that way. From an outsider's perspective, that's pretty disturbing. If Grey wasn't loaded, do you think she would actually stick with him through his fetish? Probably not.

I can understand the BDSM community finding the series trash but not for the reasons they describe. SPOILERS for why Christian Grey is the way he is, which is revealed A LITTLE in the first novel but more-so in the second:

So Grey was born to a crack whore mother who had abusive boyfriends that beat the shit out of her and called her a useless fuck up. Then when he's 15, he's basically forced into a submissive relationship with his mother's friend for 6 years but more than likely Stockholm Syndrome caused him to enjoy it and get more involved with BDSM to become a Dominant. So what does this tell us? Apparently the only people into BDSM were abused as children and are really fucked up. No one gets involved with it because it's actually enjoyable or fun according to Fifty Shades.

Although I would imagine the people decrying the series didn't actually read the novels and are just using the same image that's pasted over and over.

You're a breath of fresh air in off topic where, at times, a leftist puritanism as sanctimonious as any bible thumper's predominates. The story Masquerade posted speaks to the spirit: fantasy is somehow normative; fantasy and reality are conflated at every turn provided its politically expedient. As silly as the book/movie strike me, they are far from frightening. Instead, it seems incredibly patronizing to assume that the millions of women who were drawn to the work are incapable of identifying their own erotic fantasies and then differentiating these from actual desires. According to wikipedia "50-91% of people surveyed on university grounds in various places in the USA admit to having had a homicidal fantasy." Nothing suggests these fantasies "shape what we become." OT is often a lot like taking a trip to your fundamentalist grandfather's house for the holidays, though you are not alone.

I never thought I'd see the day I posted in a controversial topic in the same manner as Elliott.
 
I can't get over the fact that it's all repurposed Twilight fanfiction, but anything that further dispels the myth of women as chaste victims of sex instead of active participants is fine by me. Tons of women (and some men) fetishize being dominated. If that's what gets them off, more power to them.
 

adamYUKI

Member
You're a breath of fresh air in off topic where, at times, a leftist puritanism as sanctimonious as any bible thumper's predominates. The story Masquerade posted speaks to the spirit: fantasy is somehow normative; fantasy and reality are conflated at every turn provided its politically expedient. As silly as the book/movie strike me, they are far from frightening. Instead, it seems incredibly patronizing to assume that the millions of women who were drawn to the work are incapable of identifying their own erotic fantasies and then differentiating these from actual desires. According to wikipedia "50-91% of people surveyed on university grounds in various places in the USA admit to having had a homicidal fantasy." Nothing suggests these fantasies "shape what we become." OT is often a lot like taking a trip to your fundamentalist grandfather's house for the holidays, though you are not alone.

Well-said. I agree wholeheartedly.
 

Platy

Member
I can understand the BDSM community finding the series trash but not for the reasons they describe. SPOILERS for why Christian Grey is the way he is, which is revealed A LITTLE in the first novel but more-so in the second:

So Grey was born to a crack whore mother who had abusive boyfriends that beat the shit out of her and called her a useless fuck up. Then when he's 15, he's basically forced into a submissive relationship with his mother's friend for 6 years but more than likely Stockholm Syndrome caused him to enjoy it and get more involved with BDSM to become a Dominant. So what does this tell us? Apparently the only people into BDSM were abused as children and are really fucked up. No one gets involved with it because it's actually enjoyable or fun according to Fifty Shades.

I only read most of the first one but HOLY FUCK at those spoilers =O
 

FatalT

Banned
I can't get over the fact that it's all repurposed Twilight fanfiction, but anything that further dispels the myth of women as chaste victims of sex instead of active participants is fine by me. Tons of women (and some men) fetishize being dominated. If that's what gets them off, more power to them.

Many novels began as fanfiction though. You shouldn't let that fact throw you off. There have actually been two novels that began as Twilight fanfiction. To some extent, something that begins as fanfiction is almost the same as something that begins with the same basic plot. How many stories have been created that mirror the "epic hero" trope of "The Odyssey?"
 

sploatee

formerly Oynox Slider
Enjoy the movie, just don't confuse this with what BDSM actually is. This movie glorifies rape, abuse and violence towards women, regardless of who wrote, directed or produced it.

If you want to get into BDSM, hit me up in a PM, I can set you on the proper path towards a healthy and enjoyable relationship.

Hey, cool. I respect your view on it, even if I disagree for now.

Thanks for the offer.

I really hope we get one after this steaming turd is done.

Haha!

You're a breath of fresh air in off topic where, at times, a leftist puritanism as sanctimonious as any bible thumper's predominates. The story Masquerade posted speaks to the spirit: fantasy is somehow normative; fantasy and reality are conflated at every turn provided its politically expedient. As silly as the book/movie strike me, they are far from frightening. Instead, it seems incredibly patronizing to assume that the millions of women who were drawn to the work are incapable of identifying their own erotic fantasies and then differentiating these from actual desires. According to wikipedia "50-91% of people surveyed on university grounds in various places in the USA admit to having had a homicidal fantasy." Nothing suggests these fantasies "shape what we become." OT is often a lot like taking a trip to your fundamentalist grandfather's house for the holidays, though you are not alone.

Hey, thanks. I agree with you, although I don't know enough about OT to discuss the general tone / majority view.

I'm definitely on the left-side of the political spectrum, but I feel uncomfortable with any kind of discussion that seeks to police reasonable private sexual activity (and depictions thereof). I've got to say that of all that I've seen about this 50 Shades phenomenon, nothing has struck me as particularly egregious. It's just fairly light sexual fantasy. And I think the fact that so many women (like me and my fiancée) are quite happy with it really speaks for itself.

Provisional opinion, mind! I'm not dogmatic about this.
 
There's apparently less of that stuff in the movie.

I wasn't quite aware of this, tbh. Sorry. That said, judging by the source material, it's gonna be bullshit regardless, even if it is watered down.

Also, I only read the first book.

one quote out of context doesn't really show me anything.

Pretty sure that there are shed loads of fantasies out there that involve 'continuing past a no' that eroticise power and consent.

Blimey. Masquerader. Harsh words. Give me proof!

Chapter 1: Christian stalks Ana, it's portrayed romantically.

Chapter 2: He's already getting possessive in spite of the two not being a 'couple' yet, when Ana talks to another man (SHOCK! HORROR!), he's clearly deeply unhappy. Even though they're still technically barely anything more than strangers at this point.

Chapter 3: Ana is told taht she is to be referred to as her first name, but cannot refer to Christian as such, instead being told to call him 'Mr Grey', or 'Sir'.

Chapter 4: Literally the same shit from Chapter 3 (it IS a terrible book).

Need I go on...?


? Kinda inaccurate. :p

Why does it bother you so much what people choose to watch?

Sequels, the fact that lots of people who watch movies and TV are idiots (for instance, a worrying amount of people genuinely see Walter White as the good guy), general acceptance and the blurring of the lines of consent, etc...

I mean, I get it, guys. BDSM is a thing, I know. Completely different from rape and abuse though. The book is the latter, and the movie is likely to be so as well.

... And the book's terrible. Seriously, it's fucking terrible. Actual porn is visual, written better, and doesn't cost anything.
 
It features passages of him hitting her where she goes along with it, not because she's into it in any way shape or form, but because she doesn't want to piss him off. That seems pretty abusive.

I'll take a page from gaming-side and repurpose an argument meant to counter claims of "this character is her own woman, who are we to decide how she dresses": the work doesn't exist in a vacuum. 50 Shades is indisputably a primer on the author's fetish. Whether or not the character owns her sexuality is irrelevant if the author owns it for her. A scenario that reads as coercive or non-consensual in the books should be viewed through the lens of the author's tacit sanction, at least when attempting to criticize the work on a thematic basis.

You can argue the books are tripe and the characters are poorly realized and you'd probably be right, but you can't really label it as problematic on reading the book alone. Understanding the context of the author's investment in the work is essential. She's acting out her fantasies through a fictional proxy.
 

Wiktor

Member
The novels did wonders to how girls behave in bed. Shitty movie or not, I hope it will bring even more improvements :D
 
A girl I'm interested in wants to see this so I'm seeing it. Not much I can do. I'm trying to convince her of The Kingsmen though.
 
The difference is men are expected to work to earn their money. Women are taught to marry into it. That is why they want to marry lawyers and doctors.
Yeah, I understood what you were saying. I'm just saying I'd like to marry into wealth too. At the very least the people I date need to have careers (and not want to have children). DINK forever.
 
If anyone absolutely must watch this abusive, sexist, awful, wretched, rape-endorsing abomination (presumably out of curiosity), pirate it or something. Seriously. Spend no money on this shit.

Too bad you don't get to decide how I spend my money. Additionally it's generally frowned upon to openly endorse piracy around here.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
I'll take a page from gaming-side and repurpose an argument meant to counter claims of "this character is her own woman, who are we to decide how she dresses": the work doesn't exist in a vacuum. 50 Shades is indisputably a primer on the author's fetish. Whether or not the character owns her sexuality is irrelevant if the author owns it for her. A scenario that reads as coercive or non-consensual in the books should be viewed through the lens of the author's tacit sanction, at least when attempting to criticize the work on a thematic basis.

You can argue the books are tripe and the characters are poorly realized and you'd probably be right, but you can't really label it as problematic on reading the book alone. Understanding the context of the author's investment in the work is essential. She's acting out her fantasies through a fictional proxy.
The author referred to the books as her own version of a midlife crisis. Pretty sure there's no deep misunderstood themes that the author gets that no one else gets. The books are awful, (I doubt the author has ever participated in actual BDSM), and unsurprisingly the film is as well.
 

LevelNth

Banned
I love people being sanctimonious about other people's chosen enjoyment of fiction.

BUT YOU CAN'T LIKE THAT!!!

Edit:

A girl I'm interested in wants to see this so I'm seeing it. Not much I can do. I'm trying to convince her of The Kingsmen though.
Trust me, go to Shades instead. And this has nothing to do with Kingsmen.
 

iammeiam

Member
You can argue the books are tripe and the characters are poorly realized and you'd probably be right, but you can't really label it as problematic on reading the book alone. Understanding the context of the author's investment in the work is essential. She's acting out her fantasies through a fictional proxy.

That the author nurtures an abuse or rape fantasy doesn't stop the act from being abuse or rape, though, is what I'm getting at. We get first-person narration of somebody clearly not enjoying a spanking session, cooperating out of fear, and then the book gets slapped with the BDSM label.

My basic objection is that the book couches some very unhealthy shit behind a kink label--if people enjoy the abuse/rape fantasy, that's awesome for them, but I think it's important it be acknowledged for what it is and not lumped in to BDSM because... That's not what it is.
 
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