Fifty Shades of Sleaze

Disclaimer: I have not read the lousy books and I do not plan to see the lousy movies – so shoot me already. But I don’t need to eat strychnine or drink poison to warn others about it. Moreover, when others have checked it out, and I value and trust their opinion, then I am happy to run with their expertise on matters like this.

I am of course referring to the book and soon to be released film, Fifty Shades of Grey. For those who know nothing about this book and film series, this report offers some background:

Fifty Shades of Grey is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James. It is the first installment in the Fifty Shades trilogy that traces the deepening relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, and a young business magnate, Christian Grey. It is notable for its explicitly erotic scenes featuring elements of sexual practices involving bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism (BDSM). Originally self-published as an ebook and a print-on-demand, publishing rights were acquired by Vintage Books in March 2012.
The second and third volumes, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, were published in 2012. Fifty Shades of Grey has topped best-seller lists around the world, including those of the United Kingdom and the United States. The series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide and been translated into 52 languages, and set a record in the United Kingdom as the fastest-selling paperback of all time.

50Given such a huge impact with the book, and a likely similar huge impact with the films, it is worth talking about all this. As I say, I defer to others here, and their words are worth sharing. Let me offer two male and two female voices on this. First, Matt Walsh lays out some of his concerns:

To the women of America:
Please do not underestimate the significance of this. Here, now, you have been given the opportunity to grab ahold of our society and drag it back from the precipice. You cannot cure all of our ills, but, if you answer the call, you can at least help us take one small step toward peace and prosperity.
This is truly a seminal moment in our history. The weight of our future, our children’s future, our children’s children’s future, partially rests on the decision you are facing. Your task, ladies, is simple. All you must do is not buy tickets to 50 Shades of Grey when it’s released in theaters on Valentine’s Day. Not one ticket….
If you are a feminist, I can’t possibly understand how a disturbing fantasy about a wealthy man physically dominating a woman could ever be considered acceptable in your circle. Are we sure E.L. James isn’t Bill Clinton’s penname? Does John Edwards have a co-writing credit on this thing? I haven’t checked, but I’m half expecting Woody Allen or Roman Polanski to be listed on IMDb as executive producers. I’ve long struggled to define feminism, but if 50 Shades of Grey makes the cut, then feminism is dead and buried.

And if you are a Christian, you certainly should not be patronising this garbage:

The problem with the sex portrayed in this movie, or in any trashy romance novel you find at the airport, or in many other films and TV shows, or in many actual relationships, is that it’s always self-seeking, never honest, never truthful, never trusting, and never protecting. There is no hope in it, no kindness, no sacrifice. It’s selfish and removed, which makes it stale, which is why people tire of it so quickly and become so bored with it all, which is why they consume so much porn and bounce between so many different one night stands.
Christians might wrestle with these temptations, but they shouldn’t try to make excuses or pretend that it’s OK in this case because they really enjoyed the book. That’s nonsense, a cop out, and they know better.

Doug Groothuis offers this commentary:

The Cinderella of this story gives herself to a sadist for her keep. She is a kept and abused woman who consents to it all: bondage, domination, injuries – taken and received. Human beings were not meant to do such things to each other.
Time, of course, cannot bring itself to condemn the film. It has neither the moral authority or discernment to do that. Christians can and should evaluate it, since we have been given a revelation of what is good and evil.
As R.J. Rushdoony said years ago, when a culture rebels against God and his creation mandate (Genesis 1:26; Psalm 8), it immerses itself in sexuality. Sex is severed from family and culture-creation for the glory of God. Sexuality is exalted above all other concerns and personal qualities. As such, virtue is lost and vice is embraced. Every quirky and kinky orientation and activity (see Leviticus 18) is justified because of the thrill it gives empty selves in an otherwise meaningless world. Nerve endings speak louder than conscience.

Deborah Hamilton reminds us that this book/film “Has Nothing to Do With Love”:

According to one report, 20 minutes of the 100-minute film are scenes of graphic sex. And the film carries an “R” rating not only for “graphic nudity” but also for “unusual behavior,” which entails BDSM sex scenes (BD=Bondage and Discipline; DS=Dominance and Submission; SM=Sadism and Masochism).
Religion and culture expert Dr. Alex McFarland (alexmcfarland.com), says the movie is the latest installation in a cultural trend that advances a skewed definition of love.
“Few things are as unthinkable as promoting violent sex and psychological abuse in the name of ‘romance,'” McFarland said. “But it’s hardly surprising that our culture has come to this point when we recognize that for years, sex has been glorified as the ultimate standard of love. And not sex within the God-ordained protection of marriage between one man and one woman, but sex that is simply a means of taking what we want from someone else to gratify ourselves. Fifty Shades of Grey goes beyond even this twisted view of sex and love and elevates sexual abuse as acceptable. This is not only a tragic and dangerous depiction of love but also one of the reasons young people today are growing up with little understanding of real love, mistaking emotions for the sacrificial and often inconvenient commitment love calls for.”

Finally, concerned mother Kym Kready says this:

I’d like to debunk 3 of the most common excuses supporting FSOG that I’ve heard so far:
One: It’s not porn, it’s just a bit of fun.
The reason I am calling Fifty Shades ‘pornography for women’ is because it really is just that. The definition of pornography is ‘Printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement.’ (Oxford Dictionary) 50 Shades definitely does that, but goes further by romanticising sadistic and masochistic sex as ‘enlightenment’ – which it definitely isn’t.
Bearing this definition in mind, 50 Shades author, ‘E.L. James’ told the Huffington Post; “Well to be honest, it was mostly curiosity. I had just read some stuff about BDSM [bondage-domination-sadism-masochism] and found it really, really hot — an arousing kind of hot. And I got to thinking, ‘What if you met somebody who was in this kind of relationship, in this lifestyle, and who knew nothing about it and probably didn’t want to do it? What would happen next?’ And I just took it from there, really.” (1)
Hmmm. Interesting.
It’s also interesting that the genre of these books is called ‘erotica’ so it’s clearly not light reading for general consumption.
Two: It’s not harmful, it’s female sexual liberation
Australian research shows that by 16 years of age, 100% of boys have been exposed to pornography, with the current average age of exposure to boys being around 11-12 years of age. There are varying studies and statistics regarding female exposure, with some research showing girls reporting a 97% exposure of porn by the age of 16….
I can’t tell you the number of teenage girls who come to me and say; “My boyfriend wants me to do this (insert weird, kinky and potential harmful sexual act) but I don’t feel comfortable with it…” Then they lean in, full of self-doubt and anxiety and ask, “Is there something wrong with me?” How tragic. What type of world do we live in when a young woman questions her own gut instincts? Why isn’t she instead questioning the sexual act being forced upon her, or the guy asking her to perform these acts? This is not women’s liberation, but actually the opposite.
It makes me so angry and sad that teenage girls are questioning themselves and thinking something is wrong with them for not wanting to do those things. This book romanticises these acts, and that is not real life.
Three: If she consented, it’s fine. It’s none of your business!
OK then. Let me apply this same logic to domestic violence. As a counselor, many DV clients often say; “Its fine, its my fault, I deserved it. I forgive him.” The emotional manipulation women are susceptible to, especially by men, cannot be comprehended or underestimated. The female heart desires to love and give ALL, to lay her life down and sacrifice everything for the man she loves. Many words of manipulation have caused women to go far beyond this natural desire, into accepting sexual violence in the bedroom, all because he says ‘he wants it.’ This is not OK! Just because someone consents, doesn’t make it right. No one has the right to harm anyone, even if they supposedly ‘ask for it’.

Here are four voices of sanity in a world going absolutely nuts. The sexual anarchy and moral freefall we are experiencing is destroying our culture, destroying our marriages, destroying our families, and destroying our children. For the sake of all four, please, have nothing to do with this destructive sleaze. And warn others as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_Shades_of_Grey
http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/07/25/women-america-4-reasons-hate-50-shades-grey/
http://douglasgroothuis.com/2015/02/08/20034/
http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/48218-fifty-shades-of-grey-has-nothing-to-do-with-love
http://kymkeady.com.au/fighting-for-your-teens-boycotting-fifty-shades-of-grey/

[1666 words]

22 Replies to “Fifty Shades of Sleaze”

  1. Romans 1:21-24 comes to mind
    21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

    24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen
    If this is not “the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another what is?

  2. Another interesting take here;

    Fifty Shades Against Gender Neutrality

    One answer is that there’s a hunger that’s not being satisfied: Namely, for men who are unabashedly masculine, who aren’t afraid to take control, and to lead. That is, there’s a longing (even a lusting) for men who aren’t afraid of what’s classically been called “headship.” To this end, while Fifty Shades subverts Christian sexual morality, it subverts the modern crusade for “genderlessness” all the more.

    http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/02/fifty-shades-against-gender-neutrality

  3. Dakota Johnson, the actress playing the main female character, has said she doesn’t even want her family to watch the film. Come on Dakota, even you know what’s right….
    http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/08/dakota-johnson-bans-parents-from-watching-her-in-fifty-shades-of-grey-i-dont-want-them-to-see-it-at-all/

    This Christian website makes an interesting argument:
    https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/the-real-reason-50-shades-is-so-wildly-popular-hint-its-not-the-sex

  4. Thank you Bill for this write up. We are living in the days of Sodom & Gomorrah. We need to stand for righteousness & holiness in these days of wickedness & evil & constantly speak the truth.

  5. I would entitle this book and movie “Fifty Shades of Pathetic”. Hollywood have done the Hollywood thing and chosen Jamie Dornan who is quite good looking and a former Calvin Klein model. Jamie is quite used to baring it all and posing for such graphic sexual advertising for Calvin Klein. Point of interest he has just become a father yet doesn’t feel that he should be role modelling for his child that a real man is the protector of both his wife and his children but went ahead by this character to further his acting career. He even went to such lengths to get into character by going to a “real life” sex dungeon. Shame on you, Jamie. Thanks Hollywood for appealing to women by placing such an attractive man in such a sick role. On the other hand Dakota Johnson is a relatively unknown newcomer to the big screen and daughter of Don Johnson. Not nearly as attractive as her co-actor and I don’t mean that in a nasty way but to show you how Hollywood seduces women. Maybe Dakota is trying to get a leg up (no pun intended) to make it big in Hollywood by playing a naive College student who is groomed both sexually and emotionally in acts we shouldn’t even be hearing about let alone on the big screen. What this says to me: Hollywood is trying to seduce women into all sorts of sexual acts for men, calling it “love” or “romance” and men are being trained or groomed themselves to expect it. What grinds my coffee beans though is the fact that in Australia it’s rated MA15+ not R rated and is able to be seen by kids 15 years and older. Seducing the next generation. This is evil personified and also it’s being released on Valentine’s Day! Absolute hypocrisy on Hollywood’s behalf. Just a side note the original actor who was meant to play the sadistic Christian Grey bowed out before shooting started. Well at least someone in Hollywood saw the light. My prayer is it’s a fizzer.

  6. I came across some Youtube videos about Pompeii, also secrets of ancient Egypt, and the term used about Pompeii is “swimming in sex”.
    Revelation 2:14, 20; 9:21;16:11. These give some idea of how the human delights to immerse itself in sexual immorality, and will not give it up.

  7. Another good article is here:

    http://www.scissortailsilk.com/2015/02/10/christian-women-and-christian-grey/

    And a great quote from it:

    “It is a complete lie that going to see the movie will help your marriage. And an even bigger lie is that it won’t affect you it all. Because it will. The things that you see cannot be unseen. The feelings that you experience from being entertained by those scenes cannot be unfelt. And if marriages aren’t under enough pressure already, going to watch pornography is only throwing gasoline on relationships experiencing fire from all directions.”

  8. @Francesca
    Hollywood is bad, but let’s not forget it was a British writer who came up with the book in the first place. And reportedly it originally started as fanfiction on the Twilight vampire novels of all things….

  9. Thanks Bill, glad to know I’m not the only one who thinks this disgusting book is utter rubbish. When I first heard about this book I was appalled, I didn’t want to go anywhere near it. I was shocked that some girls in my former church were actually reading it(!) I have no intention of reading the books or seeing the movie.

  10. No wonder those who think we are a Christian country despise Christians. I knew nothing about it but the name and now I don’t want to.

  11. @Mark Wong, yes, and that’s why I hated all the hype with the Twilight series, same deal different genre. Edward too was controlling and dominating over his female love interest. I even had one misinformed Christian woman tell me that Edward reminded her of Jesus and how He is protective over us! This is totally a seducing of both mind, body and spirit. The problem is that our sub-conscious can’t tell the difference between fiction and fact. So, putting up such a movie on the big screen is to get into our sub-conscious, seducing people to believe such behaviour is normal and aiming it straight at the next generation of adults. You have more impact in 2-2 1/2 hours than reading a book. The eye is the window of the soul.

  12. I suppose I might read the book and see the movie, if I want to spend the next few weeks feeling that I have been swimming in the sewer and am stuck there. On the other hand…

  13. This is utterly incredible, but so very telling about what is wrong with the church today:

    “One of our nation’s leading Christian publishers conducted a survey asking respondents to name the most influential book they had read in the past year. A startling number of women – Christian women – said “Fifty Shades of Grey” was their favorite book of the year. Why is that so noteworthy? Because the “Fifty Shades of Grey” books are a written form of pornography, plain and simple.”

    http://www.christianpost.com/news/why-are-these-christian-women-reading-porn-133874/

  14. The facts that the books are really popular is confusing for the average guy because it is sending out a conflicting message. The book says that it is sexy for a man to be in charge of a woman, even though this guy goes to the length of abuse, but in the general media we see that it is sexist for man to be in control.. No wonder why most men are not interested in relationships because it is a minefield out there and not worth the risk.

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