By Katie Hummel
The Informer
Laingsburg HS
1st Place
Division 4, News Writing
Review
Both the movie and the book “Fifty Shades of Grey” have faced a lot of controversy. The story follows the relationship between young, innocent college student Anastasia Steele and the coldly polite billionaire Christian Grey. The duo’s relationship is constantly changing and evolving as feelings grow and boundaries are crossed. The movie has many questionable and disturbing aspects, but by far the most distressing was the abusive relationship portrayed by the two main characters.
To correctly critique “Fifty Shades of Grey,” people should keep in mind that the plot is based on fantasy. Yet even when I take that into consideration, I still find multiple objections to the relationship that is being shown to billions of girls and women across the world. For example, how the movie shows that people should change for their romantic interest even if it makes them uncomfortable. This message is shown through how Anastasia constantly gives into Christian’s demands.
This promotes that in a relationship, if you are good enough or patient enough, you can make a person change. This concerns me because this is what people in abusive relationships think: the idea that, “If I am nicer to him or if I try harder, he will love me and treat me better.” When people have these thoughts, they often put up with a lot of abuse and don’t leave because they think it is their fault they are being treated badly.
Not only does the movie promote that you should change, it also shows that once women are in a relationship, it should become their whole world. For instance, Anastasia does not do much once she starts dating Christian. After she graduates from college, she is never shown having a job or working in any sort of way. Instead, the movie shows her receiving an expensive car from Christian and spending pretty much all of her time with him, thinking about him, or talking about him. He becomes the most interesting thing in her life; this demonstrates to girls that once a man becomes interested, you should give up your own dreams and ambitions. This double standard is further shown by Christian being allowed to have both a career and a relationship.
Christian also has some pretty creepy stalker qualities. He sneaks into Anastasia’s house and surprises her in her bedroom. Now a smart, logical response to this would be to scream and call for help, but not Anastasia. She does not run nor does she scream; instead, they end up having fun in between the sheets. Both boys and girls need to know that it is not sexy or okay for someone to break into your bedroom.
Not only does Christian break into Anastasia’s bedroom, he also tracks her down without her permission. In the scene when Anastasia is in a bar obviously inebriated, she decides to call Christian. During the call, Christian demands that she tell him where she is, and she refuses. Anastasia’s obvious reluctance to see him does not deter Christian. He decides to track her down without her permission and visit her at the bar.
What’s really disturbing, though, is that Fifty Shades of Grey is far from the only movie to promote unhealthy relationships. For example, the Twilight movies (Fifty Shades of Grey was originally just a fan fiction of Twilight) contain a lot of the same tendencies towards portraying an imbalanced and abusive relationships. Our culture should begin to promote and show healthier relationships in order to combat sexual, emotional, and physical abuse.