**POTENTIAL BUFFY / TWILIGHT SPOILERS – GO AND
WATCH ALL THE SERIES AND FILMS OF BUFFY AND TWILIGHT, THEN COME BACK AND READ
THIS POST!**
**DEFINITE 50 SHADES OF GREY SPOILERS, AS
YOU MAY HAVE GUESSED!**
50 Shades of Grey
is a movie spin-off of Twilight; that famous vampire film set in Seattle.
50 Shades… is a
film about a wealthy man who fancies a young English Literature MA student and
wants her to be the “Submissive” to his “Dominant.” During the film she has to decide
whether she wants to sign a contract agreeing to certain terms. It’s a classic
will they, won’t they plotline and I’ll discuss it a bit later on.
It was with some degree of trepidation that I started
writing this blog post as domestic abuse versus consensual sexual experience were
high on the list of themes (and I guess I don’t like conflict). Ok, there were
2 themes. Oh wait, love - that too, healthy relationships, Seattle etc... So
the film has raised a lot of eyebrows and I think some online people have been
vocal without really discussing the themes brought up very thoroughly, perhaps
unfairly.
The plot of 50 Shades…
follows the male character, Christian Grey, as he attempts to entice the
virginal, if not innocent, Anastasia Steele (we’re on a colour scheme here)
into his world of S&M, which, at the start of the film, is open for a new
occupant – well, his Red Room and swanky Seattle apartment where he houses his
Submissives is. Anastasia is a curious female character, open to new
experiences – albeit, apparently, fisting is out. Even the mention of anything
beyond the norm sets the audience to giggling and I bet a few people’s sex
lives will become more racy, or awkward, by the time this film goes to DVD. It’s
always interesting to get an insight into other people’s worlds, so this film
was like looking through a window into that world – although I’ll wait for the
Channel 5 documentary before I decide whether it’s that realistic or not(!). The film was definitely in line with some
of the divine Marquis’s finer work (this book is definitely worth a read - very academic).
I’ll admit that I read only a couple of pages of the book
before deciding 50 Shades of Grey was
horrendously poorly written and not worth the time to read when I had a pile of
great books toppling off my bookshelf to be read. After watching the film
however, I have been sucked into the publicity craze a little. The way the
story is doled out with teasing, anticipation and frustration – I’m at least
curious about how the plot leads onto the next two films and how the plot could
possibly thicken.
It was one of my old (not that old, but we’ve known each
other long enough) school friends that I took to see 50 Shades… ok she dragged me along, and that was probably a mistake
– too many chances to giggle like the juveniles we once were and insert names
of boys we used to know as kids for comic effect.
This film was almost a parody of itself: the awkward
silences, the intense looks, the close-ups on touching her arm and Ana biting
her lip (apparently a very sexy gesture according to Christian – and he should
know, right?). In one of the elevator scenes (guess what happens in the other
one?!) the elevator doors close with Ana inside and Christian outside.
Anastasia whispers, “Christian,” and he whispers back, “Ana,” – the sexual
frustration is palpable. The more serious the two main characters seemed, the
more steely (sorry) their glares and heavy their breathing, the more giggling
seemed to issue from me and my friend. The
kids next to us (I’m thinking they probably weren’t over 18) seemed to be
enjoying it too! I definitely heard the word “boobies!” at one point during the
film and they held back because there were loads of opportunities to say it.
This film begs the question: Where is the line to be
drawn between soft porn and Art House. Well, this definitely wasn’t Art House
and parts of Lars Von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac” were far more hardcore than 50 Shades…. I think the worst Christian
does is hit Anastasia with a big whip. So I’m not too sure – chick flick? Hmm…no.
I find that, when some books are made into films, what does
not seem so aggressive to me on paper is really made aware in the visual. In
Twilight, the idea that a Jacob Black would Imprint on a
child, was completely paedophilic. The obsessive behaviour of Edward, in the
book, didn’t seem obvious yet, on the big screen, it was horrifically clear. I
won’t get too deeply into how Buffy
and Angel had a more real and functioning relationship than Edward and Bella,
but there it is – #mygeneration
Throughout 50 Shades…,
Anastasia is asked to sign a binding S&M contract, a contract to consensual
one-way domestic abuse. Were she to sign an agreed contract, that should be ok
in the eyes of anyone, in the same way that Euthanasia should be – it’s signed,
it’s agreed; you’re free to do what you want. The main societal worry is
perhaps the idea that Anastasia is an innocent girl who does not know her own
mind and that young women watching 50
Shades… might think that it’s ok to be abused in the name of a sexual
relationship and that women now perhaps don’t receive enough education about
good relationships, other than that of their parents, if they have one. I think
there is a lot of sex
education but not so much relationship education in Universities and
schools. The fact that this film drives a discussion about this is positive.
I definitely don’t see this film as an example of how a healthy
relationship should be – I hate that term “healthy relationship” but it works
for this – every relationship is different, people are different. If healthy
is: healthy communication, a willingness to be in the relationship, being in
love, knowing what love is or should mean, fitting into someone’s life, not
being abused and looking to the future as long as the couple wants to be in
that relationship.
The potential S&M contract part of the film is
consensual, that’s fine; do as you please, whatever. The abuse part for me is
that one person relinquishes their rights and, as a woman, as a person, I would
hate to be in an unequal relationship. I’d have to have an active part in that
life lived together: “You’ll like to be submissive” Christian says, “you won’t
have to worry about things,” “I would tell you what to do,” and “there will be
no responsibility for you”. If you deskill yourself and let yourself live at
the whim of someone else, who are you? What’s your point in being? Let the
government tell you what to do and nanny you and what do you become but a cog
in the machine with no free will to determine who you are, what you create.
This film doesn’t just pose questions for a woman, but for anyone who submits
themselves to the will of others and does not question what they do, how they
do it and why they do it.
For me, in response to many people saying that the S&M
part of the film is abuse, the real abuse is not so much the consensual
beatings as the way the characters relate to each other. Ana is not allowed to
tell her friends about the relationship (Christian Grey being a wealthy guy in
the public eye, I kind of understand that, though). Christian is an obsessive
character who wants to control Anastasia and she, curious, is willing to submit.
Christian will not let her drink alcohol. He buys her a car and expects her to
be happy that he sold her old car (without asking and which might have held
sentimental value for her). She then gets told off by being smacked, blurring
the lines between what is their love-relationship and what is their
sex-relationship. These are things that cannot be separate for these two
characters – they are in a relationship but Christian seems to think they are
not. I think having a contract is probably a good idea on his part, as life
does tend to blur lines. Christian is a man who is obsessed with wealth and the
power that wealth brings him however, for the female character, she (standard
genderised character) feels sentiment which he (standard genderised character) does
not understand. It is up to her to change him and mould him to her beliefs.
Will this happen? Why is this presented as the woman’s job? Why should the
woman be looked after? If Christian was previously a Submissive, what made him
want to become a Dominant? Is this the path that Anastasia will tread in future?
I found myself screaming out for Ana, as the Submissive, to misbehave and maybe
that’s where the sexual excitement within the idea of S&M comes from. One
constantly thinks, “when is she going to stand up to him?”, but thankfully that
desire was satisfied towards the end of the film.
The plotline was obvious. We knew it was a will they, won’t
they but I can’t fault it for cinematographical style. One scene at night portrays
Anastasia waking up and walking into the front room with a quilt draped around
her like a toga in front of the apartment’s large windows whilst Christian sits
at the piano, lost. I like to think that this frame is a nod to Pretty Woman
because at this point in the film, it feels like she is giving sex for the
wealth it brings and Richard Gere plays the piano on his own in Pretty Woman
too. Not that it’s wrong to want to be with someone who can support you
financially as well as emotionally. It’s not like she isn’t working for her
living.
The End.
(This blog is already too long! And I am impressed if you
have read this far. I probably didn’t get into half the things I could’ve done
but hopefully it’s been a vaguely interesting read…)
