Who is the toxic relationship in 50 Shades of GREY?
The Fifty Shades trilogy follows wealthy and powerful businessman ChristianGrey as he meets Anastasia Steele, a virginal college student lacking confidence, and woos her into his BDSM (sexual sadism or torture sex) world and “red room of pain.” The relationship maps onto what would be considered an abusive relationship rife domestic violence in the real world. Christian puts Ana under contract to serve as a sexual “submissive” and uses intimidation, coercion, humiliation, violence, stalking, manipulation, jealousy and other controlling behaviors to groom Ana and keep her under his domination. Ana is consistently isolated, threatened, and manipulated, yet she comes back to Christian time and time again because she thinks her love can change him. As the story progresses, Ana, who was first fearful and disturbed by Christian’s controlling behaviors and dark sexual practices, gradually becomes desensitized to his harsh treatment. These are hallmarks of abusive relationships.
The franchise advertises it as a love affair and erotic sex—but it’s really about grooming a young girl into a cycle of abuse, violence, and sadistic sex.
The Fifty Shades franchise glamorizes and legitimizes both sexual and domestic violence. In real life, women in these situations don’t end up like Anastasia—they end up at a woman’s recovery agency, on the run from their abuser or, sometimes, dead.
Our pornified culture is already affected by violent acts in mainstream porn and now, with the help of Fifty Shades of Grey, this violence is being further legitimized and broadly accepted by women. Now men don’t have to entice women to engage in the violent acts that they regularly consume through pornography because Fifty Shades of Grey is doing it for them.
The popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey among women sends a message to men that violent and degrading sex is what women really want. For a more realistic look at how a sexual encounter between a sexually abusive, egomaniacal multi-millionaire and a young, vulnerable woman would end for the young woman, look no further than George Soros’ hedge fund manager, Howie Rubin. Rubin allegedly beat and raped three different women in his creepy penthouse BDSM dungeon, according to the lawsuit one woman filed against him.
