Media Minute: 50 Shades of Grey (film)

50 Shades of Grey (film)

All I’ve been hearing about is what a wretched representation 50 Shades of Grey is of the
BDSM community. Also, that it was a cheesy film.

Of course, I had to see for myself.

Having read the books, I had a good background of expectations for the film. Right from the get-go, the movie opens with Anastasia’s interview with Christian, and it is nothing but unrealistic.

At first, Ana showed clumsiness and was unable to get her nerves under control as she squirmed in front of a young, hot billionaire in his empire of an office. Now that is realistic.

Not even a minute later, she’s interrogating him about the deep, dark depths of his soul, accusing him of having a bigger heart than he let on.

Seriously? That’s something you talk about after like, the third date when you’re both drunk and its 2 a.m., not two minutes after meeting a hugely successful CEO in an interview you didn’t even expect to have. I digress.

You will probably expect by now that I’m just going to rip on the entire movie, but honestly, that first scene was the only issue I had with it.

The film had a lot of iconic quotes from the book that I was pleased to see. There were significantly less sex scenes than you’d expect after reading the book. I guess they only had two hours to work with, and they had to get the story line in there somewhere.

The playroom was everything I had hoped it would be and more. There are honestly no words to describe it other than it was well-equipped with every toy he could possibly need.

I’ve done quite a bit of research on the BDSM lifestyle, especially with that last 50 Shades of Ferris article I wrote, and I have to say that the BDSM community is missing the point.

From what I saw in the movie, they really weren’t that far off the mark of the BDSM lifestyle at all.

Between the negotiation of the contract, the toys used, the rewards and punishment and the dynamic of the dominant-submissive relationship, I think it demonstrated the basics of the lifestyle pretty well, considering this is the first time its been in the limelight.

However, the point of the story is that Ana and Christian are falling in love, and it’s messing up the strictly dominant-submissive element in the relationship.

Not all dom-sub relationships are strictly sexual and otherwise platonic, but Christian’s usually were. It was like a business agreement- that’s what he is used too.

Now that they’re falling in love, the relationship is no longer just black and white, but rather, 50 Shades of Grey.

(No, that’s not where they got the title, I’m just super clever.)