51吃瓜

It鈥檚 not the bondage that鈥檚 the problem with the upcoming blockbuster, but something more mundane.

Fifty Shades of Grey film opens this Valentine鈥檚 weekend to much fanfare but, perhaps tellingly, with few press previews in the United Kingdom. With one British cinema chain  advance ticket sales worth 拢1.3 million, it鈥檚 pretty clear the adaptation of E. L. James鈥� best-selling book is going to be critic-proof.

It is difficult to write about Fifty Shades without being caught up in excess: translated into 51 languages, more than 100 million , 50 million-plus views of the trailer on YouTube. This is the novel that has spiced up (heterosexual) marital bedrooms and led to its own range of sex toys. To cash in on the film鈥檚 release, British DIY retailer B&Q  staff to expect soaring sales of cable ties and duct tape. There鈥檚 even a limited edition Fifty Shades of Surf  detergent to help with the post-coital clean up.

From the trilogy鈥檚 sadistic billionaire to laundry detergent might seem like quite a leap. But at the heart of Fifty Shades鈥� success has been the juxtaposition of the apparent ordinariness of both the novel鈥檚 heroine, Ana Steele, and the middle-aged, middle-class mother who wrote it (originally as  fan fiction) with the extraordinarily wealthy, extraordinarily sexy, extraordinarily messed-up Christian Grey.

Despite, or perhaps because of, its resolutely heterosexual address, the Fifty Shades phenomenon has been defined by women鈥檚 relationships with one another as much, if not more than, with men. This has clearly been played on in the portrayal of director Sam Taylor-Johnson  of the film鈥檚 release: another middle-aged mom, overlooked professionally after the birth of her four children, given a second chance by Fifty Shades.

Of course, there鈥檚 also been much criticism of the book and, now, the film. At times, this criticism has itself been steeped in a barely disguised misogyny directed toward the author, fans or director. This has, in turn, made it easier for Fifty Shades鈥� supporters to claim that the phenomenon is doing feminist work. So the challenge for feminist critics of Fifty Shades is to air our concerns without pandering to mainstream media鈥檚 penchant for pitting women against women, or being dragged into a discussion about the relative merits of particular sexual practices.

Love and Abuse

Looked at more closely, the sex in Fifty Shades turns out to be something of a distraction. One of the most resilient claims about the book 鈥� central to Universal鈥檚 Valentine鈥檚 release strategy for the film 鈥� is that it is, underneath all the distracting 鈥渒inky f**kery,鈥� a love story.

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I agree. This is not an endorsement, it is simply a statement about the kind of story it is. While the sex is certainly not irrelevant, it is love that is most consistently used as a justification for abuse outside the parameters of BDSM.

It is not surprising, then, that much of the  of Fifty Shades has come from feminists delivering frontline services to women fleeing domestic abuse. The most high-profile campaign against the film, hash-tagged , encourages potential viewers to recognize this connection by donating the price of their cinema tickets to a local refuge.

Taylor-Johnson鈥檚 most recent interviews seem designed to get it back on safer ground: 鈥淒o feminists always have to be on top?鈥� she . Despite the reality of her own struggles to get back 鈥渙n top鈥� professionally after the birth of her children, this is meant to be a sexual and not a social question.

It should go without saying that women (and men) can and do choose to engage in a spectrum of BDSM-related activities. If these choices are made between participants who have an equal standing in the negotiation, then I fail to see why this should be anyone else鈥檚 business.

But there鈥檚 the problem. Christian and Ana are not equals outside of their sexual relationship, and so the fantasy of sexual submission collides with a more brutal reality. I鈥檓 far less concerned with what Ana and Christian do in the bedroom (and in the bath, the elevator, the car, on the piano 鈥�) than how Christian鈥檚 controlling behavior outside of it not only determines the conditions of Ana鈥檚 鈥渃onsent,鈥� but is in itself a form of abuse.

He monitors what she eats and drinks, what she drives, where she works, what she wears, who she sees, what they do. More insidiously, he does all of this because he loves her, and his wealth legitimates and luxuriously brands his choices. It鈥檚 not for nothing that this has been  鈥渨ealth porn.鈥� What鈥檚 more, Christian鈥檚 controlling behavior is repeatedly shown to save Ana 鈥� from herself as well as from a stream of men whose intentions she dangerously misreads.

This is what feminists have long referred to as the male-protection racket. It鈥檚 the plot of countless romance novels whose na茂ve, young protagonists are paired with more worldly powerful men. Thirty years on, the debate over Fifty Shades has become more hedonistic while arguably serving an equally conservative function: the end destination is still heterosexual marriage and children, with other options quickly closed down.

Fifty Shades of Entitlement

Positioning herself firmly within the demographic the book has appealed to, James has repeatedly, if somewhat coyly,  of the pleasures of conducting her research for the novel鈥檚 sex scenes with her husband. The novel was her fantasy, written for herself in the first instance.

Whether individual women find new pleasure from butt plugs is not the point here. Rather, the novel鈥檚 engagement with broader debates about gendered violence and power cannot be fantasized away. After all, one of the constants across all three novels is Ana鈥檚 explicit labeling of Christian鈥檚 controlling behavior outside the bedroom as 鈥渟talking.鈥� Yet she accepts that he does it because he loves her.

This is consistent with a wider cultural script in which obsessive male behavior and men鈥檚 sense of entitlement to women is still too often legitimated, with concrete, material effects on women鈥檚 safety and lives. Ana agrees to marry Christian at aged 21, and just weeks into their relationship, because he needs reassurance that she is 鈥渉is,鈥� she modifies her behavior to contain his rage, in recognition of the maternal neglect and pedophilic abuse (by an older woman) that has brought him here. Male violence is women鈥檚 responsibility.

And it鈥檚 this, rather than any of the sexual practices, that troubles me most about Fifty Shades. It undoes feminism not because Ana 鈥渃hooses鈥� to be submissive in some of their sexual scenes, but rather because it uses BDSM as a smokescreen to disguise a very conventional abusive relationship.

*[To mark Valentine鈥檚 Day 2015, 51吃瓜 will be releasing a new 360掳 series on sexuality. For further information, please email us. This article was originally published by .]

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