Posted on 02/13/2015 6:58:23 AM PST by Kaslin
The electricity fairly crackles.
Millions of supposedly self-respecting women are poised to breeze into movie theaters this weekend to immerse themselves in the filth that is “50 Shades of Grey.”
If there is anything more depressing than that, it is the playful clucking of media anticipation, taking the tone that this is just a fun fantasy ride, just a flight of fancy, two hours of escape.
It is more than that. It is evidence of a damaged society, a nation that thinks it is just swell to celebrate the story of a predatory billionaire punk who victimizes a tragically vulnerable woman for his own sick entertainment.
I can hear the condescending cackles of the oh-so-knowing cultural mainstream, many with Fandango receipts already in hand, poised to mock any who dare to suggest this is cultural rot. But “50 Shades” is a far cry in substance and intent from the occasional edgy book or film that contains sexual or violent passages along the path of an otherwise meritorious plot.
Is there one consumer of the E.L. James book or the Samantha Taylor-Johnson film who can say with a straight face that either would have made a peep in the marketplace without prurient content?
The lascivious appeal is what drove the book sales, and it will drive the opening weekend of box office receipts, charmingly timed for Valentine’s Day. Because what complements Valentine’s Day like a twisted story of an abusive relationship?
Even more disheartening than the smuttiness of this exercise are the poisonous messages it offers about sex. Count off the lessons from a film to be consumed by proud American women this weekend:
— Soulless sadism is hot;
—If the sadist is attractive and wealthy, his violent appetites will be met with approval;
—Such self-absorbed victimizers can force themselves on young, innocent women, and it is kind of awesome;
—Women should tolerate such sexual violence, even find a way to develop a taste for it. After all, maybe you can change him.
Movies filled with tawdry sex will come and go, their worst sins amounting to mere mindless devotion to graphic visuals. This is far worse. This is an attack on virtuous manhood and a celebration of bad choices by women.
And the pathetic thing is, the liberated throngs knocking back a few Pinots in their pre-film tailgate parties neither know nor care.
So enjoy, ladies. Thrill to the imagery of Christian Grey as he beats a college-age girl for his jollies. Imagine yourselves in the pumps of Anastasia Steele as she endures his abuse.
Plenty of movies contain portrayals of perversity, but usually it is in a negative light. it is the particularly noxious works that hold it up as something cool, enjoyable to witness and perhaps even to be emulated.
Maybe this is just an extension of the catnip value of all those vampire movies, ravenously consumed by women drawn to the take-charge romanticism of the undead. In 2015, having Edward and Jacob fight over you in the woods no longer suffices.
Now the taste is for a harder fix. This weekend’s “50 Shades” target audience and any self-respecting (or woman-respecting) men unwise enough to accompany them are rewarding a low cultural exploit that will appeal to our basest appetites.
The film’s defenders will corral armies of straw men— that people have a right to make such movies and to see them, neither of which is at issue. The debate is over the societal merit of this onscreen garbage. I look forward to hearing the attempts to praise it.
GREAT move by Jax; he’s no fool.
“Women should tolerate such sexual violence, even find a way to develop a taste for it. After all, maybe you can change him.”
Planned Parenthood was caught giving this advice to young (high school minors) women who were ‘bored’ by the old in-out. ‘Try BDSM, try choking, lean about safewords because ‘no’ doesn’t always mean ‘NO’). Lean to tolerate it. Learn to say no to lead him on. Lean all sorts of rotten behavior.
Yeah, because that's what happened with the fourth and crappiest of the Batman movies. It's not like it ran again and again and again on cable around the clock...
Believe me, the bdsm or whatever someone wishes to call it, has been available to those that are looking for it for a long time. It just wasn’t, I guess you could say, “mainstream”, like it is now. Pretty sad state of affairs. I lived in London in the early 60’s and heard tales of some of the things that could be “had” if you were so inclined. I wasn’t. I’m hopin’ the movie is a financial failure. I know it isn’t getting any of our money.
back and forth . . . .
In and out . . . in and out . . .
A little to the right . . . a little to the left . .
She could feel the sweat on her forehead . . . .
Between her breasts . . . and, trickling down the small of her back. . .
She was getting near to the end . . .
He was in ecstasy . . . with a huge smile on his face as his wife moved . . .
Forwards then backwards . . . .
Forward then backward . . .
Again . . . and, again . . .
Her heart was pounding now. . .
Her face was flushed. . .
She moaned. . . softly at first, then began to groan louder and louder.
Finally . . . totally exhausted . . . she let out a piercing scream . . .
She shouted:
"OK, OK, you smug bastard, I can't parallel park . . . You do it
What is “Twilight fanfic” & why are we supposed to be so well-verse in it as those whining about another typical Hollywood-culture film?
That’s adorable :D
:)
“damaged society”
Turn on daytime TV for more evidence.
Gosh, another movie review by someone who didn’t see the movie (and probably didn’t read the book either), so they actually have little idea about what they are talking about. You know, like all of those “American Sniper” movie reviewers that were attacked here who didn’t see the movie either.
I read the book. Not terribly offensive, just rally stupid, really ridiculous and REALLY badly written. Critics who HAVE seen the movie, claim its better made than the book, which wouldn’t be difficult to do, and which pretty much probably makes the movie a chick flick, soft-porn version of the age old Cinderella-story.
The probably not-very-good movie will indeed probably make beaucoup bucks as legions of female book fans flock to it in droves, but so what?
Have you seen the reviews? Drudge featured a link to "the best of the worst", and it was an insightful read into the dumbing down of a book by Hollywood to appease the Masters of the Movie Rating System. Indeed, I remember seeing a piece describing that the French are saying "ho-hum".
If y'all really need to get your exercise by jumping to conclusions, I won't stop you. I won't go see Fifty Shades of Grey because by all indications it's not a good movie. Period.
Actually there’s a fairly extensive BDSM subculture already in America. Has been since before the revolution. They’ve got clubs, for hire, even conventions. And they HATE 50 Shades. It doesn’t follow the rules of mutual consent that are very important in “the life”, it’s an abusive relationship. They’ve been pushing for a boycott of it for a long time, currently they’re on a drive requesting people donate a “date night” amount to a women’s shelter instead.
Fanfic = fiction written in an established “world” by fans of said world. Usually found on the internet these days, usually terrible.
Twilight fanfic = fanfic in the Twilight world.
50 Shades started as fanfic put on Twilight fan sites. It got really popular, extremely popular. Popular enough that publishers approached the author about actually publishing it. So she “scraped off the serial numbers” (changed character names, removed references to the larger copy-written Twilight world) and walla, an incredibly poorly written financial juggernaut was born.
And you should know about it only if you want to actually know what you’re talking about when slamming 50 Shades. If you’re comfortable only knowing it’s awful then that OK too.
They do look at that sort of thing, I was getting chased around by some Canadian publisher but I didn’t have the time or inclination.
If the offer came I would totally say yes. It won’t because I don’t do any fanfic or really anything creative, but free money is free money. Pseudonym though, no way I’d publish stuff I know is tripe under my own name. And cash upfront, because any publisher that dumb might not be in business long.
Also I thought my writing was nowhere near ready for primetime.
Well, I’ve now got a few friends now, so I’ll take some courses and try to do the thing right.
Some idiot was a fan of the emo whiner series “Twilight”, so they wrote a horrible fan fiction for it titled “Master of the Universe”.
It was initially “published” online.
Why should we care?
Because, it means that any sap with a poorly written fan fiction can con enough idiots into thinking it is ‘great work’ to the point that an idiotic movie is made about it.
Yet "Fifty Shades of Grey" masquerades as having some kind of literary value, as though it were high art. I'm not saying either it or Larry Flynt's magazines should be illegal, I am saying is that "Fifty Shades of Grey" shouldn't pretend to be anything more than what it is.
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