Now that the movie Fifty Shades of Grey is just around the corner, it is back in the news again. Honestly, I couldn’t care less about it save for the media circus that is following it around. This is a movie based on a book written by a woman. It is the BSDM version of Twilight save the supernatural creatures.
Now some watchdog group (and it is just really easy to become one these days) called “Morality in Media” is complaining about the movie. Their basic complaint is that the movie’s rating is to soft. Here’s a brief overview of it:
“What the term ‘unusual’ does not account for is the coercion, sexual violence, female inequality, and BDSM themes from which the entire Fifty Shades plot is based,” the statement reads. “Such a vague evaluation puts viewers at risk, sending the message that humiliation is pleasurable and that torture should be sexually gratifying.”
So let’s read off the complaints.
First we have “coercion” in a movie. Or rather, coercion of a female by a male into risky sex. The underlying complaint here is that the main character is “raped” by the male who seeks her out. She is unable to reject his sexual advances, despite even signing a non-disclosure agreement in order to engage in a sexual relationship with Mr. Grey. So I guess the message is that women lack responsibility for their actions and moral agency.
Second we have “sexual violence” in the movie. I know that BSDM is violent and it is definitely an extreme form of sexuality, but at the same time it is not rape or sexual assault. The attempt by Morality in Media here is to say that BSDM is a form or rape.
Third we have “female inequality”. At this point I am wondering why depictions of submissive women should be considered having a higher rating than ‘R’, but that’s just me.
And finally we have “BSDM themes”. Never mind that there have been plenty of R-rated movies out there that depicted “BSDM themes” and never a peep from an organization that has been around since 1962.
Let’s compare all of that with the movie Gone Girl where a woman rapes a man after slitting his throat. He is literally being raped while at the same time dying and seeing his murderer enjoy herself. That sounds like sexual violence, coercion, female inequality (the other way), and BSDM themes to me. But not a fucking peep from these hypocrites.
I don’t care for this movie really in that I am not interested in watching it. If I wanted to watch a BSDM scene, it is a simple matter of looking up pornography online. I don’t need a sappy romance drama to provide me with BSDM themed sexual encounters.
The best thing this non-profit could have done is kept their damn mouths shut. The movie would come and go and nobody would have cared except a bunch of chicks in their low-20s who grew up on Twilight. But I guess that isn’t their job.