[Stay to the Lights]

This is a great article
'Fifty Shades Of Grey' Is A Break From Damsels In Distress, Women In Refrigerators - Forbes

Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Fifty Shades of Grey dominated the box office this weekend, earning a scorching $94.5 million over its first four days of domestic play and around $245 million over the first five days around the world. There has been talk for the last year about how the film’s BDSM-tinged erotic melodrama is a kind of pro-domestic abuse porn, playing on the fantasy of a young virginal woman being swept up by a rich and handsome “bad boy” and changing him in some way. I think the best defense to those charges can be found in what happens at the very end of the film, but I digress. For the purposes of this discussion, I don’t care about whether Fifty Shades of Grey (Universal/Comcast Corp.) is guilty of every single charge leveled at it or whether it’s a good movie. It’s at-worst a deviant fantasy and women are just as capable of indulging in fantasy without taking it as an educational tool as men are. Fifty Shades of Grey is not remotely the first mainstream Hollywood film or television show to show a pretty young woman being tied, blindfolded, and/or beaten by a male character. But it is among the few to allow her a choice in the matter. Women unwillingly being bound and abused for the pleasure of the male characters (or displeasure of other male characters) and titillation of male (and sometimes female) viewers is business as usual in Hollywood and pop culture in general. But you show one woman who chooses to receive such treatment willingly, from a trusted and consent-driven partner and potentially for her own sexual pleasure, and suddenly it’s bad for women and dangerous.

The entire arc of Fifty Shades of Grey, spoilers from here on out, concerns negotiations of terms in terms of how and when the would-be bondage will take place. The film climaxes on a moment where Ms. Steele is (consensually) beaten with a belt and she clearly hates it, writhing in pain and getting no satisfaction. I cannot help but wonder if the film still would have gotten an R-rating if she had been portrayed as receiving pleasure from the act. But regardless there is informed consent nearly every step of the way. When Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) decides that (A) she doesn’t like where the relationship has progressed and (B) she truly cannot change Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), she walks straight out the door without any fear of societal condemnation, financial ruin, or violent reprisal. That is sadly the most potent fantasy in the film. Like so many would-be empowering female-centric stories, she needs no man to rescue her at the end and chooses her own path. Our entertainment culture has always thrived on presentations of women being held against their will threatened with sexual peril, and maimed or killed to further a story of a man’s heroism or a man’s downfall. How amusing that we are up-in-arms over the one film an attractive young woman is tied up of her own violation. We see countless damsels-in-distress and women-in-refrigerators without blinking yet we recoil in horror and psychoanalyze to death the one would-be blockbuster movie made by and for women where the woman chooses to be tied up and consents to mutually-pleasurable sexual activity. By that token, warts and all, Fifty Shades of Grey (by default) is more feminist, and better to women than 99% of all other would-be blockbusters out there. That may be a low bar to climb, but that says more about everything else than it does about Fifty Shades of Grey. It is one of countless movies that feature a pretty girl being tied up, blindfolded, and/or beaten. But this is the first one in a very long time where she has a say in how she is treated and the first one in a long time where said treatment exists to further her story and her narrative.

[EyeOfTheTiger]

Oh my!
Fifty Shades of Oops: Kinky Sex-Related Injuries Surge - Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades of Grey, Dakota Johnson, E L James, Jamie Dornan : People.com

[Corrsfanre]

Got to say that Elliot was not how I imagined him to be though...

He could've been better looking..

[Eternal Love]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...E-L-James.html

[Corrsfanre]

I don't think it's true...

[Eternal Love]

Originally Posted by Corrsfanre (View Post) I don't think it's true...

hope not. i like that director

[Stay to the Lights]

I guess we'll see.

[Boringblog]

I hope it's not true either. I like that it has a female director.

[Stay to the Lights]

Lets look at how it has done opening weekend around the world.

Here's a look at how Fifty Shades fared: EUROPE The U.K. and Ireland, $21.5 million. Biggest opening weekend for a film with an ultra-restrictive 18 rating. It's also the ninth-biggest debut of all time, not accounting for inflation. Germany, 15.2 million. No. 2 opening ever for a Universal title. France, $12 million. Biggest Universal opening. Russia, $10.5 million. Biggest opening for a film with an 18 or 16 rating, and biggest Universal opening. Italy, 9.1 million. Biggest R-rated opening, and biggest Universal opening. Spain, $7.9 million. Biggest opening for a film rated 18. LATIN AMERICA Brazil, $8.9 million. Biggest opening for a film rated 16, and biggest Universal opening. Mexico, $8.1 million. Biggest opening for a film rated C. Argentina, $3.8 million. Biggest opening weekend of all time. ASIA PACIFIC Australia, $8.6 million. Biggest opening for a film rated R, and Universal's biggest non-holiday opening. Philippines, $2.2 million. Biggest opening for a film with an 18 rating, and the biggest February debut for a foreign release. New Zealand, $1.1 million. Biggest opening for an R-rated film.

'Fifty Shades' Box Office: Country-by-Country Breakdown - The Hollywood Reporter

[Boringblog]

Awesome! Everyone should watch this movie.

Originally Posted by Corrsfanre (View Post) I'm Regina btw... And I also think we should campaign for Dakota. I thought she was amazing!

Hi Regina. I'm Stephanie. I would start a Dakota campaign if I had seen her in more things. All I know her from is Fifty.

[Eternal Love]

watch it today.
it was really good. since i read the book, i know they wouldnt put every single detail, but still, it was really good. much more than i was expecting.
and jamie did a great job. very convincing SR GREY.

and dakota was amazing too. i think she was a great Anastasia.
when its a movie base on a book you always expect to be bad comparing with it, but in this case, i didnt feel like that.

[Corrsfanre]

Originally Posted by Boringblog (View Post) Awesome! Everyone should watch this movie. Hi Regina. I'm Stephanie. I would start a Dakota campaign if I had seen her in more things. All I know her from is Fifty.

I saw her on that movie "The Five Year Engagement", she had a really small part, and the movie is sooo bad! Funny but bad

[Boringblog]

I have never seen it. Love Dakota now though. It's nice to hear she's hosting SNL. I remember her mom saying she wasn't going to see the movie.

Originally Posted by Eternal Love (View Post) watch it today. it was really good.

It's nice to hear that you liked it. A lot of my friends who have read the books have said the same things.

[Eternal Love]

Originally Posted by Boringblog (View Post) I have never seen it. Love Dakota now though. It's nice to hear she's hosting SNL. I remember her mom saying she wasn't going to see the movie. It's nice to hear that you liked it. A lot of my friends who have read the books have said the same things.

but it was really good. i was surprised i liked it. usually the movies dont beat the books. but this one goes close

[Corrsfanre]

Wonder when Universal will tell us when will they start with FSD