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50 Shades of Grey- The movie: Reviews

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Give everyone who tries to mansplain why it's wrong for girls to like FSoG or Twilight a fedora.

Hell, all the fedoras. Just forward every single fedora manufactured and shipped to their home addresses.

People trying to make "mansplain" a thing are embarrassing.

It's just so lame and unfunny.
 
I'm being dragged by the wife to see the movie this weekend.

Ten minutes into it I'm hoping I can excuse myself to go to the bathroom and play the arcade games the rest of the movie while her eyes are glued to the screen.
 
*male gaffers everywhere watch porn on the regular, from hentai to cuckolding to incest*

*a movie specifically directed towards expression of female sexuality and common interests / fantasies including domination and a seasoned man with money and power gets produced, receives widespread interest*

female gaffer: "I'm going to go see this! It's great they finally made an erotic film specifically aimed at women!"

male gaffer: "You can't! Based on this handful of search results I got from desperately searching through Tumblr for counterpoints, 50 Shades of Gray demeans women! I mean, I get it's fiction, but what if it wasn't? It's one thing if I'm calling down airstrikes on giant monsters or playing Torture Simulator 2015, but a form of release that's not specifically geared towards male enjoyment? Hell, no! We can't have you guys being open about what you want! Then how am I supposed to brood about women being mysterious and not knowing what you all want?"
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
Regardless of the quality, I'm puzzled how this became the one naughty thing that is mainstream sanctioned for some reason as opposed to any other type of erotic content. Is it a perfect storm kind of thing? If this gets people to be more open about more niche sexuality that's a great thing, but it seems weird this became the unquestionable top of mind product.
 

Odrion

Banned
People trying to make "mansplain" a thing are embarrassing.

It's just so lame and unfunny.

Lol. It's been an established feminist term for years now.

You know what's funny? This post's combined ignorance of subcultural terms, and the arrogance of thinking that unfamiliar words and terms you only see out of your periphery once and a while are "forced memes".
 

Odrion

Banned
Doesn't mean anyone cared until Tumblr made it a thing.

Butthead.

yes it seems like social media tends to spread ideas and theories around, good observation
*male gaffers everywhere watch porn on the regular, from hentai to cuckolding to incest*

*a movie specifically directed towards expression of female sexuality and common interests / fantasies including domination and a seasoned man with money and power gets produced, receives widespread interest*

female gaffer: "I'm going to go see this! It's great they finally made an erotic film specifically aimed at women!"

male gaffer: "You can't! Based on this handful of search results I got from desperately searching through Tumblr for counterpoints, 50 Shades of Gray demeans women! I mean, I get it's fiction, but what if it wasn't? It's one thing if I'm calling down airstrikes on giant monsters or playing Torture Simulator 2015, but a form of release that's not specifically geared towards male enjoyment? Hell, no! We can't have you guys being open about what you want! Then how am I supposed to brood about women being mysterious and not knowing what you all want?"
pretty much this, except also work in an angle where we laugh at BDSM enthusiasts who are acting like the wrestling coach from that one South Park episode
 

Chichikov

Member
So it's a story of a young naive WSU student who get raped by a rich smug man from Seattle?

It's a metaphor for the apple cup, right?
 

siddx

Magnificent Eager Mighty Brilliantly Erect Registereduser
Don't give a shit about whether or not it's "immoral" or setting a bad example or any of that high horse nonsense. People shouldn't read the book because it's just a bad book. It's a poorly written jumble of shittery. Shittery I say. Shittery.
 

Odrion

Banned
Don't give a shit about whether or not it's "immoral" or setting a bad example or any of that high horse nonsense. People shouldn't read the book because it's just a bad book. It's a poorly written jumble of shittery. Shittery I say. Shittery.

the acting in porn is real bad too. who cares

edit: It's a real Darwinist situation where if a book is unreadable or hard to read or understand, or offers nothing to the reader then people won't read it and it blips out of society's consciousness. If tens of millions of women are flicking their bean to the book then obviously it has something to offer, even if it's not written like The Great Gatsby.
 

Mr Git

Member
Heard on the radio this morning that for the French at least, this is so tame they rated it a 12. Had to laugh.
 
Asking a girl if she's seeing Shades of Grey...do you think she might think the question have another meaning ?

Help me Gaf. You're my only hope.
 

Hanmik

Member
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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.

There's also a lesbian S&M arthouse movie that's getting tons of praise, Duke of Burgundy.
The-Duke-of-Burgundy-collage.jpg

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duke_of_burgundy_4.jpg

the_duke_of_burgundy-620x348.jpg

It's about many other things than just titillation, but thought you might be into this. Going to see it myself next week.
 

MrChom

Member
If you want eroticism especially of the more....unconventional kind then I can suggest looking no further than Stjepan Sejic's "Sunstone" (available in print and on Deviant Art). A charming tale of a Domme and a Sub who are genuinely in love. It combines the erotic with the sweet, with the stupid, and is a genuinely good read.

I would link but I'm at work and Nope!
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Yeah... I don't think most of the women aching to see 50 Shades are doing it because they want to see a romantic movie, but because it's basically the closest thing to a socially accepted porn movie for women. From that point of view, the film should be observed as a sexual fantasy, which means that concerns about not portraying a healthy relationship and claims of abuse are completely secondary.

At least the S/M crowd may have a point in the sense that most moviegoers are not familiar with the subject and could walk out from the cinema with some poor ideas that could go from dangerous practices to further stereotyping.

Barring some of the most genuine objections (such as the movie being of a lesser quality), I think most of the criticism against the movie has to do with the public being oblivious to the fact that women are sexual beings who would love to see their fantasies portrayed in mainstream media. They rarely get the opportunity to scratch that itch, and now that Hollywood finally tries to cater them like it continously does with male fantasies, people scrutinize the film to molecular level and get all up in arms as if it tried to be something that it isn't.

I think most women will be able to see the distinction and enjoy the film for what it is.

My girlfriend is taking me to the premiere. She has read the books. She knows they are not very good. She knows the protagonists are not engaged in a healthy relationship. She doesn't give a shit. She's also fully aware that, more than anything else, 50 Shades of Grey is just a film that will twixt her nethers and that Hollywood rarely puts out such films, so she's kind of psyched about it despite knowing that it will most probably be crap.
 

Irminsul

Member
female gaffer: "I'm going to go see this! It's great they finally made an erotic film specifically aimed at women!"

male gaffer: "You can't! Based on this handful of search results I got from desperately searching through Tumblr for counterpoints, 50 Shades of Gray demeans women! I mean, I get it's fiction, but what if it wasn't? It's one thing if I'm calling down airstrikes on giant monsters or playing Torture Simulator 2015, but a form of release that's not specifically geared towards male enjoyment? Hell, no! We can't have you guys being open about what you want! Then how am I supposed to brood about women being mysterious and not knowing what you all want?"
So what you're saying is that the author of the following review of FSoG is probably male due to its content?
It's this kind of ignorant trash that sets feminism back decades. Women who defend this book are, however unwittingly, participating in some of the most blatant misogyny I've ever witnessed, giving the impression that some women enjoy being debased, abused, and controlled (outside of a consensual Dom/sub relationship). This is not a book about BDSM, this is a book about one sick, abusive man and his obsession with a young, naive invertebrate. It's a book about a girl who has absolutely no sense of self, who sacrifices any pretense of individuality in order to hold onto a man who doesn't even show her the faintest glimmer of respect. It's about two attention-starved individuals with the emotional maturity of toilet paper convincing themselves that their relationship is 'like, the best thing ever, OMG'. It's trite, insulting, and dangerous. I fear for any impressionable young women who read this and think that this is how an ideal relationship should operate. If nothing else, it should be issued as a guidebook to mothers around the world to show their daughters the kind of man to avoid at all costs. This book does good men (and indeed, all of humanity) a disservice.
Because she's not.
 

neorej

ERMYGERD!
Yeah... I don't think most of the women aching to see 50 Shades are doing it because they want to see a romantic movie, but because it's basically the closest thing to a socially accepted porn movie for women. From that point of view, the film should be observed as a sexual fantasy, which means that concerns about not portraying a healthy relationship and claims of abuse are completely secondary.

At least the S/M crowd may have a point in the sense that most moviegoers are not familiar with the subject and could walk out from the cinema with some poor ideas that could go from dangerous practices to further stereotyping.

Barring some of the most genuine objections (such as the movie being of a lesser quality), I think most of the criticism against the movie has to do with the public being oblivious to the fact that women are sexual beings who would love to see their fantasies portrayed in mainstream media. They rarely get the opportunity to scratch that itch, and now that Hollywood finally tries to cater them like it continously does with male fantasies, people scrutinize the film to molecular level and get all up in arms as if it tried to be something that it isn't.

My girlfriend is taking me to the premiere. She has read the books. She knows they are not very good. She knows the protagonists are not engaged in a healthy relationship. She doesn't give a shit. She's also fully aware that, more than anything else, 50 Shades of Grey is just a film that will twixt her nethers and that Hollywood rarely puts out such films, so she's kind of psyched about it despite knowing that it will most probably be crap.

There's a movie that's basically 50 Shades in everything except name, with better sex scenes and a more healthy relationship: The Submission Of Emma Marx. It's from News Sensations' Romance series, which is targeted at women, so it's not 90 minutes of pounding away, but there's an actual story, there's an erotic build up to the sex and the sex itself seems less "acted" and more "natural". My SO is crazy about the entire series.

Link to the review of said movie: review (NSFW)
 

Alx

Member
I wonder what fans/detractors of 50 Shades think of the Secretary ?



I thought it was quite an intriguing (almost fascinating) take on an S&M relationship...
 

neorej

ERMYGERD!
I wonder what fans/detractors of 50 Shades think of the Secretary ?

MPW-2792


I thought it was quite an intriguing (almost fascinating) take on an S&M relationship...

Amazing, arousing and titilating. And I don't even find Maggie Gyllenhaal attractive.
 

Hanmik

Member
Amazing, arousing and titilating. And I don't even find Maggie Gyllenhaal attractive.

My wife loves the fifty shades books.. (I bought them for her, without telling her what they were about).. we watched the secretary a month ago.. she didn´t like it.
 
I'm obviously not a woman but it seems all this franchise is doing is perpetuating negative stereotypes about women. To each their own though.
 

Platy

Member
*male gaffers everywhere watch porn on the regular, from hentai to cuckolding to incest*

*a movie specifically directed towards expression of female sexuality and common interests / fantasies including domination and a seasoned man with money and power gets produced, receives widespread interest*

female gaffer: "I'm going to go see this! It's great they finally made an erotic film specifically aimed at women!"

male gaffer: "You can't! Based on this handful of search results I got from desperately searching through Tumblr for counterpoints, 50 Shades of Gray demeans women! I mean, I get it's fiction, but what if it wasn't? It's one thing if I'm calling down airstrikes on giant monsters or playing Torture Simulator 2015, but a form of release that's not specifically geared towards male enjoyment? Hell, no! We can't have you guys being open about what you want! Then how am I supposed to brood about women being mysterious and not knowing what you all want?"

Your incest hentai does not sell itself as a non incest hentai.

I would have ZERO problems if 50 shades sold itself as an abusive relationship (ok .. I would just say it is badly written =P), but it sells itself as bsdm, making lots of women feel that their abusive relationship is something normal that they should endure.
And it has a HUGE budget so it will reach LOTS of people and features the simplification of a real problem that affects lots of people, INCLUDE the simplification of the "it is my fault" rape

That Duke of Burgundy looks an awesome portrail of BDSM, and it is sad that this movie opens in like 1% of the places that this movie opens.

The single trailer of Secretary shows more consent and happyness by the girl than every single page of 50 shades that I read
 

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
my fiance never talked about it, so I was good. then two days ago she suddenly started alluding to, so now I'm scared
 

CloudWolf

Member
Asking a girl if she's seeing Shades of Grey...do you think she might think the question have another meaning ?

Help me Gaf. You're my only hope.

I have a planned movie date with some girl I know in a week or so, but we're not sure what movie yet and I jokingly asked if she wanted to see 50 Shades of Grey with me. It was well-received.
But I'm totally not going to watch 50 Shades of Grey with her, fuck that shit.
 

squarerootofpie

Neo Member
Photoshop some fedoras into GAF avatars in this thread.

Wow. Came to this thread to agree that I found it mildly disturbing (read the book) and was going to give my opinion as a woman. Fair enough people want to be open about womens sexuality, but there's so many assumptions on this thread that anyone who doesn't agree with it is some sort of misogynistic asshole?

I've always been totally cool with BDSM, doesn't mean I can't disagree that the book portrays some disturbing aspects of a relationship. Jeez, even most of my friends in BDSM circles have spoken out about how it's portraying a flawed idea of what it's all about.
 
I have a planned movie date with some girl I know in a week or so, but we're not sure what movie yet and I jokingly asked if she wanted to see 50 Shades of Grey with me. It was well-received.
But I'm totally not going to watch 50 Shades of Grey with her, fuck that shit.

Taker her to the cinema and then pick her up after. Boom. Perfect strategy. You get the best of both worlds. Avoid shitty movie , embrace a sexual-bondage experience after it.

Im actually genuinely curious to ask 2 girls about it but i bailed out at the last minute.
 
The point I'm trying to make here is that dubious works that glorify negative traits are given substantial followings all the time. Films making it cool to pick up a life of crime, films where the entire objective is to just become the hero's woman (albeit mostly in male-geared media), things like Bratz basically establishing the only way to be "hip" as a girl growing up is to be obsessed with fashion and lip gloss, etc.

It also comes with the territory that, being predominantly focused towards women on top of it being a series of multiple films, that there's room for progress and character development. This first film could very well be establishing a baseline for the "He's troubled, but I can be the one that changes him!" spin on it that's all too real in the first place.
 

patapuf

Member
You make it sound like it is ok to glorify abuse if it is a work of fiction....

50 Shades is obviously partly fantasy/wish fulfillment. And i think most people get that.

We don't have any issues separating "movie violence" from real violence for example and cheer for heroes that do all kinds of things that would be a crime in real life. I'm sure people watching 50 shades don't have trouble recognising that this isn't actually healthy relationship.

As such, yeah, i think it's "ok".


I understand the worry of the BDSM community about prejudice though, and critisism from that perspective is understandable, as is the desire to educate people how to do it right. I feel that's more productive than simply whining that this popular movie is trash (which i don't really disagree with, but so are many popular movies).
 

Chichikov

Member
. . .

That's because BDSM ISN'T FICTION.

BDSM is an actual thing that a lot of people are into.

This book is a portrayal of an unhealthy relationship practicing under the label of BDSM. Rather than cry the "No True Scotsman" fallacy, we're trying to explain that there are elements of this BDSM dynamic that are unhealthy. For example, at times it really veers into abuse / nonconsent, which are absolute no-nos. In other times, consent is not clear... and that's a no-no as well.

Lastly, the vaguely looming attitude of "all people into BDSM are fucked up" doesn't really help the community at all. It's sort of like the cliche of "all strippers have daddy issues." BDSM is awesome and I am happy for the people that enjoy it, both fiction and real-life play. We would prefer to not be stereotyped as a bunch of abusive, rapist sociopaths with 100000000 issues all stemming from our fucked up childhoods.
First of all, many great works of fiction deal with extremely unhealthy relationships.
Now to be clear, everything I read of and about these books suggests to me that we're not exactly talking about Tennessee WIlliams here, but still, I think it's important to note that depicting unhealthy relationship does not automatically make a work of fiction bad or unworthy.

Now what I think we do have here is just someone who had a rape-ish fantasy and wrote some fan-fic about it. So fucking what?
People write about about getting raped by dinosaurs.
I think that whole "people will act about on it and get into unhealthy relationships" is getting uncomfortably close to the "action movies make killers" sort of arguments, I do believe that the vast majority of people can understand the difference between fiction and real life (and those that don't, has issues that can't be pinned on a book if you ask me).

I can sort accept the "it will give BDSM a bad name" in the abstract, but I think BDSM is misunderstood as it is, that if anything, that movie (like the book did to some degree I think) will make at least talking about it a bit more mainstream, and as whole, I think it might even be a good thing in the long run.
 

Moff

Member
Now what I think we do have here is just someone who had a rape-ish fantasy and wrote some fan-fic about it. So fucking what?
People write about about getting raped by dinosaurs.
I think that whole "people will act about on it and get into unhealthy relationships" is getting uncomfortably close to the "action movies make killers" sort of arguments, I do believe that the vast majority of people can understand the difference between fiction and real life (and those that don't, has issues that can't be pinned on a book if you ask me).

unlike action movies, many people did pick up BDSM because of the novels, though. there are even shades of grey starter kits in sex shops. and the very same novels promote, that it's ok to ignore the safe word, wich is not just an abusive relationship, it's sexual assault and rape. it's not about an elitist "but they are not doing it right" and most certainly not about not welcoming new blood in the community. it's not about some unimportant detail. it's about the most important pillar of BDSM, which is consent.
 

Chichikov

Member
unlike action movies, many people did pick up BDSM because of the novels, though. there are even shades of grey starter kits in sex shops. and the very same novels promote, that it's ok to ignore the safe word, wich is not just an abusive relationship, it's sexual assault and rape. it's not about an elitist "but they are not doing it right" and most certainly not about not welcoming new blood in the community. it's not about some unimportant detail. it's about the most important pillar of BDSM, which is consent.
Those kits are just sex toys though.
I really see no harm if a woman pick them up and go to her partner and say "hey, let's roleplay that scene from the book/movie".
I think it's like porn, nothing more, nothing less.

And if some guy decide to handcuff his wife and whip her up against her will, he's rapist, he should go to jail, but that's on him, not the books.

You say that, but:

Sex toy injuries surged after ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ was published
I think that's got more to do with people being clueless, if you don't know what you're doing you can hurt yourself even if your relationship is very healthy with your partner.

Also, the problem with this is that the bad relationship is glorified. It's glamorized. It's not simply "oh bad relationship bad book," it's the message it sends. TBH, the only people I see saying this relationship is abusive/unhealthy is mostly kinky people that are familiar with what BDSM is. Everyone else just seems to write it off as "fantasy," and while it IS fantasy, it's also unhealthy and dangerous. That's really the point people are trying to make. It's not because "OMIGOD I'M A MAN AND I WANT TO TELL WOMEN WHAT TO THINK."
I have fantasies that if I'd act on them in earnest (as oppose to roleplay) it would be pretty fucking terrible, emotionally, physically, you name it.
But they're fantasies, I know the difference, I give readers of these books as much credit as I give myself.
 

docbon

Member
*male gaffers everywhere watch porn on the regular, from hentai to cuckolding to incest*

*a movie specifically directed towards expression of female sexuality and common interests / fantasies including domination and a seasoned man with money and power gets produced, receives widespread interest*

female gaffer: "I'm going to go see this! It's great they finally made an erotic film specifically aimed at women!"

male gaffer: "You can't! Based on this handful of search results I got from desperately searching through Tumblr for counterpoints, 50 Shades of Gray demeans women! I mean, I get it's fiction, but what if it wasn't? It's one thing if I'm calling down airstrikes on giant monsters or playing Torture Simulator 2015, but a form of release that's not specifically geared towards male enjoyment? Hell, no! We can't have you guys being open about what you want! Then how am I supposed to brood about women being mysterious and not knowing what you all want?"

i don't really care too much about the movie itself but it's kind of weird assuming the sex of gaf posters based on whether or not they enjoy its content.
 

Moff

Member
Those kits are just sex toys though.
I really see no harm if a woman pick them up and go to her partner and say "hey, let's roleplay that scene from the book/movie".
I think it's like porn, nothing more, nothing less.

And if some guy decide to handcuff his wife and whip her up against her will, he's rapist, he should go to jail, but that's on him, not the books.

that's where I disagree, as I already mentioned in my first post. this is not comparable to rape porn. rape porn is a fantasy.
shades of grey however introduces the safe word. the safe word is the one tool the passive player has to break that fantasy. it's the one thing that takes you out of the fantasy and back to reality. I have never seen any rape porn where safe words are used and ignored, it just doesnt make sense, they are not part of the fantasy. it's not something that should be handled lightly, especially given the circumstances that it introduces so many new people to that topic and might think that's cool or hot. that comes with a certain responsibility. that's my biggest issue with this.

now, you also mentioned that many great works of fiction portray abusive relationships, but in that case the author makes sure that the reader is not on the abuser's side and he get's punished or sees the error of his ways, shades of grey does not do that, he is continually glorified.
 

Arkanius

Member
Most bad reviews seem to mirror very closely the reviews of the book.
I don't care about that, me and my GF have read the book already and actually enjoyed it for what it was (A very light light erotic novel with BSDM undertones)

Now, as a Book-to-Movie adaptation... Is it actually good? Are the actors good? Is it faithful?

FFS, I don't want the same debates we had back when it was released. We are all treading burned ground here.

Women like it, end of story, most of us have watched kinkier stuff, why is everyone acting as if they had the moral high ground.
 

Chichikov

Member
Do you remember the debate about men saying things like, "but I knew she actually wanted to"? I hear it a lot-- "but I could just tell she wanted it." What happened? Rape. In these very forums I've had arguments with people about how "but I could tell she wanted it" did not translate into consensual sex, and I've had PMs from people sharing their experiences- how they were raped while being told that same line "I know you actually like this."

I do worry that this being super popular, especially among women, may end with some people taking away the notion that "most/many women want to be dominated," which in itself isn't harmful-- until someone doesn't realize that consent, first and before all, is required... since the books make no mention of how consent is the most important thing. & signing that contract wasn't even consent & knowledge, it was some sort of fucked up psychological power play.

edit: Just to be clear, many, if not most, people involved in power exchange (and ESPECIALLY total power exchange), in the BDSM community, are familiar with the burden and responsibilities of a dom. New doms are encouraged to shadow other experienced doms. Being a dom is considered a responsibility and a privilege, and part of that is to be sure that you know what you are getting yourself into, and that your partner is mentally aware of what is going on. I'm not talking about play parties with d/s dynamics, I'm talking about the honestly, somewhat risky business of TPE (which can be awesome). IF the book was a "real" relationship, Christian, being the "experienced" one, is supposed to be partially responsible for educating/discussing with his sub/partner, in a non-power-exchange environment, everything that he and his partner will be doing... to make sure he has her consent when she is not under duress.
There's a lot of women who find that arousing, and you're telling them "no! no! that's irresponsible, that might lead to unhealthy relationship and gagball injuries!".
Do you apply the same standards to the porn you're watching?
Are you like midway through go "no, wait, isn't that milf is in position of authority over her babysitter? that is send the wrong message that you can threaten termination in order to get hot lesbian sex!".

p.s.
Wow, you take BDSM like super seriously.
Not a criticism, whatever float your boat, just an observation. And I really don't think most people who get curious from watching this book will have to shadow a dom in order to get their freak on.
 
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