50 Shades of Grey: child sexual abuse?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Elizium23
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Gordon_Sims said:
I haven’t read the book, will not read the book and will not see the movie. However, I’ve read a few articles about the pedophile angle and a couple of those had quotes from the book. I thought the articles were persuasive enough to convince me that if the author’s intention wasn’t to write a thinly veiled pedophile fantasy, she at least had some aspects of that in mind when she crafted her fine piece of quality literature. I’m not saying she’s a pedophile or has any leanings in that direction herself, but I think she knows her target audiences. Without commenting on her writing abilities, I believe she knew the sort of story she wanted to give to female audiences, and I think she knew that having a child-like protagonist would appeal to a certain segment of the male population.
Click to expand...
I don’t have statistics but I think the majority of Twilight readers (those who read it because they wanted to, not for research) were girls and women. I also don’t have statistics on fan fiction readers or writers but my impression is that a good majority are are female. I doubt the author even considered her target audience at all nor did she know anything about BDSM but probably copied other fan fiction with a BDSM theme. I think it’s a total fluke that her story was picked up over other fan fiction that is better written. I think it was because the the original characters were so OOC that there were fewer of concerns about copyright violations. Was the author’s intent to write the characters OOC? If so, she’s a bad writer. If her intent was to write them in-character but with a BDSM theme then she’s a really, really bad writer.
 
Timothysis said:
First, you say that only “pedophiles and men who like to abuse women would really like this.” Then you question “why so many women have bought the book.” Obviously, your analysis of the book or its readers is wrong. Perhaps you need to rethink things.
Click to expand...
I did wonder why women found it entertaining when, in my view, it would only be for pedophiles and men who liked to abuse women. My only conclusion is women like that type. Scary and shows we need strong fathers more than ever now. Sad really.
 
KendraDZ1902 said:
I look like a child. I’m in my mid 20s and still get ID’d for the movies! People a few years younger always think I’m still in my teens. Does my husband, who is almost 30, have some pedophilia fantasies? Is that why me married me? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I would hope not. Many women look young but that does not mean they marry men who want to groom them for BDSM. This book does.
 
oneofmany said:
I did wonder why women found it entertaining when, in my view, it would only be for pedophiles and men who liked to abuse women. My only conclusion is women like that type. Scary and shows we need strong fathers more than ever now. Sad really.
Click to expand...
Yes. I am just as puzzled as you are as to why a lot of women like this book.
 
I wrote my trilogy in part to try to counteract the 50 Shades phenomenon. (You can see how well that’s working – not rolling in fame or wealth yet! Although my third book hasn’t yet come out.)
I gave book 1 to a co-worker to read, who said she couldn’t finish it, “there’s not enough smut in it.”
I took that as a compliment, of course, (there’s no smut in it at all, actually) but found it sad.

When did women start admiring garbage like this openly? I guess I was off on the hippie farm when that change took place.
 
Viki63 said:
I wrote my trilogy in part to try to counteract the 50 Shades phenomenon. (You can see how well that’s working – not rolling in fame or wealth yet! Although my third book hasn’t yet come out.)
I gave book 1 to a co-worker to read, who said she couldn’t finish it, “there’s not enough smut in it.”
I took that as a compliment, of course, (there’s no smut in it at all, actually) but found it sad.

When did women start admiring garbage like this openly? I guess I was off on the hippie farm when that change took place.
Click to expand...
It happened when women decided they wanted to be just like men, around the time the pill was invented.
 
I haven’t read the books and don’t plan on seeing the movie either. I hope it bombs too. I can’t help but think of the book Lolita that was banned years ago. This only shows how more depraved we have become and how more dehumanized they portray women.
 
A friend of mine asked me to buy her the book series as a Christmas gift, which I did without really knowing what it was about. Now I realise my mistake.😦
 
The only thing wrong with this film are the people who watch it. It’s smut! It is pigs food! It will stain the soul! But people will flock to it and suffer the consequences. The people who watch this film are in need of spiritual healing. Again, it’s the people who are the problem, not the film in and of itself. As has happened to me while watching smutty films, I pray that the moviegoers see the light of righteousness and seek forgiveness from God for the perversions that they harbor.
 
I can’t understand why a trashing poorly written novel has caused such an uproar. Who cares?

These kinds of books have been around for ages. I remember finding my mom’s copy of Wifey hidden behind some Encyclopedia Britannicas when I was about 12. Same story, different decade.
 
I can’t understand why a trashing poorly written novel has caused such an uproar. Who cares?

These kinds of books have been around for ages. I remember finding my mom’s copy of Wifey hidden behind some Encyclopedia Britannicas when I was about 12. Same story, different decade.
 
Bell(name removed by moderator) said:
I can’t understand why a trashing poorly written novel has caused such an uproar. Who cares?

These kinds of books have been around for ages. I remember finding my mom’s copy of Wifey hidden behind some Encyclopedia Britannicas when I was about 12. Same story, different decade.
Click to expand...
Because it sold over 5 million copies and large percentage are believed to be “average” women. It raises questions about what large numbers women find “exciting” among other things.
 
Bell(name removed by moderator) said:
I can’t understand why a trashing poorly written novel has caused such an uproar. Who cares?

These kinds of books have been around for ages. I remember finding my mom’s copy of Wifey hidden behind some Encyclopedia Britannicas when I was about 12. Same story, different decade.
Click to expand...
It isn’t about it being trashy or poorly written. I’ve read lots of trashy and poorly written novels, and have not felt the need to condemn them.

It is because this book normalizes and romanticizes an abusive relationship. In a society where we so frequently have to explain to women what abuse is, it is horrifying to see this book, with it’s blatantly abusive relationship, held up as some model of romantic ideal.
 
There’s more than enough physical and emotional abuse to decry in FSOG as it is. Bringing child abuse into the criticism is, IMHO, a stretch and misses the big picture.
 
This is from the site I posted earlier----
I also read that Target is selling the handcuffs, blindfold, etc next to the children’s toy aisle. Plus a fifth grade in some school has a crossword puzzle for the students with the Fifty Shades questions in it.

**This story is for adults. There is no impact to children.
Code: 
The media firestorm surrounding this franchise is impossible to miss. Kids are exposed to the messages in the story simply by existing! Walking down the street, visiting a mall or even watching family-friendly television (ABC Family plays the trailer right in the middle of kids shows) exposes children to advertisements for this book and film. Watching daily news shows and talk shows (which most parents have on while kids are in the room) exposes kids to the messages that this violent sexual behavior is normal and worth a try.

Kids are hearing about Fifty Shades and more and more are hearing the terms BDSM. There’s no stopping it thanks to the popularity of this show. Curiosity and the innate desire to be like adults will send many kids looking for answers. Considering that mainstream pornography mostly follows these themes, you can be sure that is what they will be exposed to.

The truth is that kids are more tech savvy and are consuming more media than adults. Of course, parents need to monitor this, but the reality is that most parents aren’t and most parents cannot keep up no matter how hard they try.**
 
Bruised_Reed said:
I don’t have statistics but I think the majority of Twilight readers (those who read it because they wanted to, not for research) were girls and women. I also don’t have statistics on fan fiction readers or writers but my impression is that a good majority are are female. I doubt the author even considered her target audience at all nor did she know anything about BDSM but probably copied other fan fiction with a BDSM theme. I think it’s a total fluke that her story was picked up over other fan fiction that is better written. I think it was because the the original characters were so OOC that there were fewer of concerns about copyright violations. Was the author’s intent to write the characters OOC? If so, she’s a bad writer. If her intent was to write them in-character but with a BDSM theme then she’s a really, really bad writer.
Click to expand...
I’m inclined to go with this. I think it’s probably giving James too much credit by thinking she thinly veiled anything. I would be surprised to learn that there was that much forethought given to the story.

If you think about the Twilight connection, though, I can see the point that some are making with the child abuse interpretation. In Twilight, Edward is centuries old whereas Bella is a high school teen (at least starting out). Those are the characters that James had in mind when she first wrote the story. I can understand how, as Gordon said, the numbers James eventually assigned aren’t as meaningful as the characterization. Though, again, I doubt she really gave it that much thought.
 
I find it amusing that, released only a few weeks from each other, are two movies: American Sniper, and Fifty Shades of Grey, that display the utter hypocrisy of both the right and the left in this country.
 
From what I gather from the reviews and media references, the heroine is seduced into a BDSM lifestyle by a young billionaire who buys her lots of nice things and who looks like a Calvin Klein underwear ad.

There’s more than one female fantasy being played out there, and the situation wouldn’t be as enticing to as many women if the male was a chubby balding store clerk who lives in his mother’s basement and has some handcuffs on his dingy four-poster bed with graying unwashed sheets.

It kind of reminds me of that film where Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson played a young couple who were being seduced by millionaire Robert Redford, who offers them a million dollars if Demi Moore’s character will have sex with him.

My sister said at the time that the movie was popular because we like to fantasize about having to make a moral choice where the stakes aren’t really that unappealing. She said women like to fantasize about having to decide whether they would be willing to sleep with Robert Redford for a million dollars, whereas in the real world most women’s moral choices are more like deciding whether to sleep with someone who looks like Danny DeVito for rent money.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top