Let me begin by saying that I have not read the book, Fifty Shades of Grey, nor do I intend to. Neither will I be seeing the movie. But who, with internet access, doesn’t know about the controversy that surrounds this book? The problem is not the lack of information, but the abundance and which direction to take with a critique.
When looking at the content of what can only be called the abuse and demoralizing of a woman by a depraved man I am struck by the irony of releasing such a movie on St. Valentine’s Day.
The day, which has over the years taken on a somewhat silly, sentimental perception, has a noble history that puts the sadistic idea of sex portrayed in this book to shame.
Whereas Christian Grey seeks to satisfy his vulgar desires at the expense of another person with no real love or commitment, the history of St. Valentine’s Day is the very opposite.
At the time of Emperor Claudius marriage for young people was outlawed, with the idea that an unmarried soldier would fight better than his married counterpart. St. Valentine took his life into his own hands by secretly marrying those couples that came to him. To the couples and to the priest the commitment of marriage was worth dying for. And for Valentine that is exactly where it ended, in his execution.
When compared to the self-serving acts of Christian Grey and the pathetic submissive behavior of Anastasia we can see the sickening contradiction of releasing a movie that describes the most intimate act of love in such a warped way on a day that glories in the noble, self-sacrificing truth of real love.
M.A.Foxworthy 
Should we not strive for a society where individuals are free to indulge in mutually consensual submission or domination as they desire. Your inference that domination and submission are, necessarily, exploitive and exploited seems extremely judging and prejudging – as on outside observer with little personal interest in either (but I’m fine with those who, consensually do)
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Thanks for reading. I think that it has less to do with the private sex life of individuals as it has to do with the degradation of individuals. Maybe, and forgive me if I am wrong, that is more difficult for a man to see. This is the kind objectification that Feminism was supposed to free women from. When young, impressionable girls are exposed to such material their self-worth becomes related to the idea that they are only really desirable if some man wants to abuse them. And it gives the young men the idea that this is what girls want.
On judging, it is something we all do every day, if we did not we might eat poison or leave our children to be watched by pedophiles. To not make judgments doesn’t make us better people but mindless silly people.
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I very much agree with you that woman are far more subject to repressive degradation than men. As a father of two daughters I worry about this a lot. But my remedy it to make sure they grow up w the confidence and sense of equality that will assure that if they ever want to play with power in a relationship it will be on their terms and will only be ‘play’.
You points on judgement – we’ll likely have to agree to disagree. As a student of history (as opposed to religion) I observe all of the prejudices, injustices, violence and discrimination that has been perpetuated in the name of religions who deemed themselves fit to judge those with different beliefs…. Religions do way to much judging and far too little empathizing, understanding and tolerating
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“Religions do way to much judging and far too little empathizing, understanding and tolerating…” Who are you, mik1999, to judge religions?
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Yes! Thank you! I’m not Catholic, but even so, FSOG represents the complete opposite of what the holiday is all about. Thank you for your explanation of why this movie is so inappropriate.
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Thank you for your input.
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Reblogged this on A Merry Band of Travelers.
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Wow! What an amazing and ironic connection. I never thought of that! Thank you for posting. Seriously, mind blown 🙂
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I’ve always enjoyed the story of St. Valentine despite the holiday’s modern hearts-and-roses cliche’. Thanks for pointing this out. I blogged about how I think this movie will impact our society recently. It might be worth checking out. https://vandenbergbrian.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/why-this-weekend-maybe-see-spongebob-instead/
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