Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan star in the film, “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
There’s been plenty of protest from Christian groups about the new movie, Fifty Shades of Grey. They call it pornographic. They call it abusive. They call it perverted. It’s probably some of all of those things. But I’m not that shocked. I’m not even that scandalized. I guess it’s because I was scandalized a long time ago.
I was scandalized when I heard about my elementary school classmates watching the “naked scene” in Titanic on repeat. I was scandalized when the middle school boys picked up virtual prostitutes through the video game Grand Theft Auto. I was scandalized when I found out that swimsuit models needed to be reported on in Sports Illustrated. I was scandalized by our entertainment industry a long time ago, so I wasn’t that surprised when I heard about Fifty Shades and people flocking to see it.
Our culture has made their stance on sexuality very clear: that it has no boundaries as long as it is consensual. That means we are going to have movies, video games, books, magazines, and TV shows full of what we consider perverted sex. And it’s only going to continue to get worse and become more mainstream. In case you haven’t heard, there is a “Fifty Shades Vermont Teddy Bear“complete with accessories.
Vermont Fifty Shades Teddy Bear.
This is no doubt perverted, but maybe we should have seen it coming when Gund released its “Victoria’s Secret Teddy Bear” in 1992. Not S&M version, sure, but, really? Who is this teddy bear for and why?
So when I see the protests against Fifty Shades, I can’t help but wonder if we missed the boat a long time ago. I understand that this one is a little different because it’s mainstream — because suburban women are openly reading things that used to be the secret sins of suburban men. But what about the suburban men? What about Playboy? Have we somewhat given up that protest simply because it has become normal?
I’m not saying I don’t think the backlash to Fifty Shades is a good thing. I definitely think that it is. But I think we have to be careful to not be misleading. When we sign petitions to not go see this one movie about one form of perverted sex, I worry that we are saying something (or failing to say something) about the dozens of other movies with perverted sex.
I haven’t seen Fifty Shades but I’ve read enough summaries to get the gist. The only thing that seems to really separate this movie from any other post-Christian values romance is that it involves BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sadism, Masochism) — ironically, the trilogy supposedly will end with marriage and even children.
Other movies involve homosexuality, others adultery, others plain old premarital sex. But as Christians, we should believe that all of this is problematic. As Christians we should believe that the opening scene to Bridesmaids or various scenes in Knocked Up are also pornographic and degrading like the scenes from Fifty Shades.
We should believe that they are greater and lesser and different forms of the same sin. BDSM is still taboo in our culture so it is easier to condemn. Perhaps we have forgotten how to condemn the mainstream sins, or perhaps, we are afraid to.
It’s years of Sex in the City that led women to Fifty Shades of Grey. It’s the natural progression of the subject matter. We have to recognize it and protest sooner. I’m not saying we become prudes. I’m not saying we can’t watch any movies that portray sexual sin. Sin can be portrayed in an artistic or even irrelevant way that is not pornographic (i.e. intended to arouse).
But I think we have to make a stand when it becomes pornographic, whether that means closing our eyes (yes, seriously) during the scene, or skipping scenes, or rejecting the movie altogether if the scenes are too many. I think it means refusing to buy certain songs or turning off Beyonce’s Superbowl halftime show.
I know I have often glossed over the borderline pornographic in entertainment media for the sake of a good beat or a good laugh. But those little concessions contribute to getting us to where we are today. When we say we don’t mind that one scene or that one song, we tell the entertainment industry to keep going— and that’s how we get to Fifty Shades.
So I wonder what will happen when this movie is old news— when BDSM is no longer taboo and Hollywood has moved on to something else horrific. Right now, Fifty Shades of Grey has a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I hope we would be just as passionate against it if it had a 99%.
But my experience says that the more our culture becomes desensitized to the degradation of the sacred, the more we Christians also become desensitized. I hope that this time it will be different. I hope that our protest lasts, that the commitment to boycott this movie will become a trend in boycotting other movies, and I hope this makes us think about those little concessions.
I hope it makes us think about how we let our culture get to this point and how we can stop it from going any further.
The issue with 50 shades is the manipulation to normalize physical abuse against women, to make the abuse seem consentual when it is not.
This is why our Archbishop has issued warnings.
Jonathan, I agree that Fifty Shades is a problem by all means. I just think that we need to be aware of the “abuse” in all the many forms of degradation throughout so many of our other movies and media. These forms of abuse are not as outright, obvious, or taboo, but if we want to stop something like Fifty Shades from becoming popular we have to protest the degradation of women (and men) in all the other areas.
Pornography like Playboy Magazine manipulates men into thinking women are sexual objects. Drama such as Sex in the City is an attempt to enable women to objectify men and men to objectify women as a kind of false liberation and equality, when in fact it is degrading recreational sex. Pornography like this has been fiercely opposed by numerous pro-family and marriage groups.
50 Shades is something different altogether. It is more than another inevitable slip down a slippery slope. Rather, is an attempt to portray a sexually abusive and violent exploitation of a woman by a man in a position of power as a voluntary and mutually consentual act, when in fact it is a psychological and sociopathic coercion. False consent is rampant in corrupt societies, laws, contracts and partnerships. A film like this may lead malformed young men to effectively further batter uninformed women under a guise of false consent.
An appropriate response is shock, and renewed defenses to guard children and young adults against this kind of sophistry. Our Archbishop has effectively banned the movie.
There is nothing inevitable about the film. It is a deliberate aberation away from the true freedoms which flow inevitably from people of good will uniting around good causes to defeat bad causes.