Hey-ho, it's Frid...oh? That didn't rhyme.
I'm at the English class again, half an hour early because my schedule is still stupid. Oh well, at least I have a time slot to write stuff every week. See, the problem with it is that if I don't have a schedule or something really important to say, I kinda forget to write. That's why I always wrote from Bartlett Square café last year. BTW, I found the cafe's facebook page and finally found out the barista's name. Y'know, the one with the awesome beard? What, no, I'm not facebook stalking random people, honest.
Anyway.
It's almost February and that is so weird. It was just new years and now the first month is just poof. Gone. Speaking of February, Valentine's day is also coming and when that happens the worst thing since Twilight is happening. Yes. The 50 shades of Grey movie.
I normally wouldn't even mind, I think it's high time that a porno made it to the mainstream media (because let's be real, it is a porno) because hey maybe it'll loosen the stigma around sex and women's sexuality (especially the kinky shit) in our society, but not like this man NOT LIKE THIS.
I talked to you a bit about this when you were here but I really need to talk about this some more it's pissing me off. ((DISCLAIMER: I haven't read the whole series. I have read parts of the books and enough summaries and meta to know what happens in it and why it's bad.)
So, 50 shades of Grey. What's so bad about it? The answer: Everything. I'm not even kidding. The language is mediocre, boring and time to time laughable ("‘Are you ready for this?’ he mewled, smirking at me like a mother hamster about to eat her three-legged young."Actual quote from the actual book. And that was during sexy times.), and yes it is nothing but a porno. Socially acceptable porno, but still. Porn.
Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against reading porn, but at least find something that's good. 50 shades is not good porn.
But that's not really the problem. Oh no, the problem is the characters and the way they are depicted and how they interact.
Anastasia Steele is a worse main character than Bella Swan (which does make sense, seeing how 50 shades is originally a Twilight fanfic. Seriously, of aaallll the great M rated fanfics in the world, they had to publish the worst possible one...) and I am not kidding. Bella was an utterly empty character. She had no personality whatsoever, and the only independent thing she ever did was like an English assignment on some novelist she liked in book 3 or whatever. But I often suspected that was on purpose. So that the reader would fill in their own personality into the empty vessel that is Bella and feel like they were the one living the story. Now, Twilight might not be the best story to live, what with all the unnecessary drama and love triangles and y'know killing and shit.
Anastasia Steele is very much like Bella, except her entire life revolves around Christian Grey. He is her first, he owns the company she works in, he tells her what to do and eat and wear and it is terrible. Christian does not view her as a person, he views her as a pretty accessory, a doll he makes look beautiful and then fucks. And she lets him, because she doesn't know better. Or rather, because the author seems to think this is what romance is.
Spoilers: it's not.
The books also feature BDSM. I mean, they try to. Christian Grey, as a dom, is manipulative, abusive and selfcentered. When he first suggests a relationship for Anastasia he has a flipping contract he wants her to sign, including such points as she has to exercise four times a week with a trainer he provides and that she essentially obeys his ever command. She ultimately does. He also doesn't provide after care nor does he really respect Anastasia's boundaries. That is not the sign of a healthy dom/sub relationship. It's not a sign of a healthy relationship period.
Also at one point when Anastasia gives him her safe word (thank god she at least has one) he later complains about getting "safe worded" instead of making sure Anastasia is ok. And that's just. Nnnnnngh. No. Stop it.
All in all the relationship depicted in this badly written porno is abusive and terrible and it is in the public eye. Women will read the book and think that this is romantic. Men will read the book and think that it's ok to treat women this way. If it were only a regular book I could maybe learn to live with it, but it's not. It it way too popular and with a movie adaptation coming out it will be even more so. And that is not ok. This is not an ok book.
Just. No.
Rant over. Pie out.
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