StarStruckStrumpets said:
I find it interesting that the "social justice for all!" crowd are backing a very particular notion of theirs.
"You can have all the equality you want, so long as it doesn't offend me."
I haven't read the books, but clearly the sales figures determine that there is an audience for this kind of relationship to be explored or even enjoyed in a form of media. Why then, is it that everyone is talking about how this will "normalise" abusive relationships and ruin the position of women in our culture?
Fucking hell guys, you can't have it both ways. Some women get off on this shit. Leave them be, let them have their turn-ons. How is embracing a turn-on oppressive? You must all be sex-negative feminists.
And this is a very common defense from 50 Shades fans. (Although in this case you just don't like the arguments against it, I guess?)
Rape porn is one thing.
If you get off on it, it's your business, fantasies are fantasies.
But if you can't tell the difference, it's kinda worrying.
If you glorify an abusive relationship, you make it harder for people to recognize abuse or rape (or make abused people less likely to be taken seriously), and the way this book misunderstands BDSM, it spreads misinformation abusers benefit from.
I'm not saying it should be banned, I'm saying the book is shit, and I'm sad it got as popular as it did. (Which was a fluke and a result of a snowball-effect, since it's not like this is even the first of its kind.)
Also, 'sex-negative'...
Do you have any idea how sex-negative 50 shades actually is? It depicts BDSM as something broken people do, who have been abused in the past, and justify their abuse with their past. (Because the author considers BDSM a naughty thing no one should actually WANT to go into by their own will.)
It's horribly misogynistic, in the way the main character treats other women, constantly putting them down in her mind, and suspecting they just want to steal her man, because fucking Gray is the dream of all women everywhere.
And it had the annoying 'women must be pure' shit I mentioned before.