Fifty Shades of Backlash

If like myself you will be heading to the cinema to see Fifty Shades of Grey this week I’m sure you’ve been met with multiple people scorning and rolling their eyes at you, I know I have. Having not read the book I actually don’t know much about the plot or its characters, I’ll be walking into that cinema screen relatively blind with numerous other excited women and reluctant men, just as much as I usually am for a film that has caught my attention. And that’s what it’s done; it’s caught my attention with multiple emotive trailers, teasers and a killer soundtrack.

I’m not interested in whether or not you thought the book was badly written, after all I have no intention of reading the book and to be honest if E. L. James has made herself a millionaire and a household name all from a book that anyone else could have written, well I guess there’s hope for us all right? I also don’t care whether or not the sex scenes will be explicit; this aspect of the film has received a lot of criticism. Some have made the assumption that as a Hollywood film the sex scenes would have had to be tamed down in order for the film to be released, now I’m no genius but I’d go as far as to say that, that will definitely be the case so I really won’t be shocked – nor do I believe this is what people should be judging the film on, because if you’re going to be disappointed with the lack of sex there’s plenty of other places you can go to watch that.

There is however one aspect of the film (and the book) that has been discussed at length on the internet…the last few months have seen campaigners  frantically signing petitions hoping to spread the word and boycott the film that apparently has themes of domestic violence; again I stress I have not seen the film or read the book, so I cannot comment on whether I believe that it does/does not portray an abusive relationship. When reading about the boycott my mind jumped back to the Twilight franchise days when many people also expressed that they thought Edward’s treatment of Bella both in the books and the film adaptations could be depicted as abusive – although I do agree that their relationship was abnormal and dysfunctional, you have to remember that the majority of audiences understand the difference between fictional situations and their own lives; most of these women pining over Christian Grey would tell him where to go if they actually met him in real life. I guess you could counter argue that if the book and the film do feature a domestic violent relationship between Christian and Ana that it is helping to raise awareness of the problem and forcing people to talk about it!

So to those who are planning to go and see Fifty Shades of Grey prepare to take a mortgage out in order to pay for your ticket and that popcorn combo. And to those who will avoid it at all costs, it’s only just begun…sorry, not sorry.

By Talia Maguire