to worry that 50 shades will lead to more sexual violence

[magrate]

I haven't read the whole book, did find it poorly written and comical. However s and m in something so mainstream just doesn't sit right with me. Seems a step backwards.

Yep I think we all want that instant can't get enough of each other attraction the attraction that azure so intense you orgasm from a touch. And the bad boy things has always been classed as sexy in every media outlet

I agree with others - if this was Steve the bin man, Ana would have run a mile and middle aged women up and down the country wouldn't be asking their blokes to take a trip to B&Q for rope and zip ties.

But just because the main character is gorgeous, a billionaire, has a taut chiseled torso and a big penis, is really good in bed.............

Sorry, what was my point again?

All seriousness though, Christian Grey is just a totally creepy, dull as shot knobhead isn't he?

*shit, obviously

No, (in my humble opinion of course!) I loved every bit of his fucked up character. I know people complain about it being poorly written, and I myself wasn't much of a fan of the oh, my stuff and the inner goddess, but what I thought E.L.James did so well was to really record the process of falling in love with this guy. It felt so familiar (no, I've never fallen in love with a billionaire, but I have fallen hard/been infatuated) and it resonated with me. I fell again, just a little bit, alongside Ana.

I don't think I'll feel it through this movie though. Someone else's vision is not my own, the guy they've chosen to play him seems too serious, a bit cold.

But he was so........boring? Did he ever crack a smile in the entire first book (I didn't make it beyond that).

Still, different strokes i guess - it wouldn't work very well if we all liked the same kind of bloke!

Oh but he stalked her on holiday, and bought the company she worked for.

That's true love that is. Not creepy at all.

Awwwwww.

She is a strong woman who does tell him where to stick it and does tell him when he has gone to far and she does take control back for herself.

A strong woman woman would never have let this slimy dysfunctional tosser into her life in the first place.

A strong woman? Maybe her inner goddess should take up bodybuilding (along with the pole vaulting...)

Finally got round to reading it. Not worth the effort. Poorly written, repetitive, and really not very sexy. Not really disturbed by the sex - he was pretty up front about what he was after, and she still pursued him. Disturbed that he is an emotionally abusive stalker.

Deeply disturbed that noone seems to care that the woman who committed sexual assualt on him when he was a very vulnerable (I think) 15 year old got away with it. She was an even clearer abuser, and he was very clearly a victim, at that stage. But all the debate appears to be about Ana as the victim. And don't get me wrong, I think she is a victim of emotional abuse. But any story that includes a past history of a 4 year old being used as an ashtray, then when a vulnerable and traumatised midteen being sexually abused by a woman old enough to be his mother? Total and utter turn off, thanks.

There is overwhelming evidence from an overwhelming number of studies in a discipline I specialise in (and contribute research to) - that the media simply does not create effect on people in that simple, instant linear manner. Nothing ever has. Of course the Daily Fail continues to labour under the fixed belief that 'powerful media affects poor hapless audience' and have many convinced about this. I consider it a singular failure of academics like me that we simply haven't managed to convey sixty odd years of findings proving otherwise to the public at large, we have kept them wrapped up inside our ivory tower.

So, no this one book will not increase or decrease absolutely anything. In a month you won't be talking about it.

Not read it do I can't really comment and answer your question OP. But is there any actual story in amongst the sex?

I think increasingly that increasingly overwhelming evidence from a growing body of research shows clear evidence of the growing pheomenon of academic reasearch that increasingly fails to address more and more the growing complexity and multivariant vectors that increasingly contribute to a critical mass of behavioural change. A growing number of erections for example increasingly find exhibition sex vanishingly stimulating.

Well I didn't read the book. I did see the film on Saturday. I left the cinema seriously quite worried about the message it was giving today's kids. The sex is irrelevant. Anything goes between 2 consenting adults, but my over riding feeling was it normalized abusive relationships. I want my kids to watch it as an example of what not to accept in a relationship.

It wasn't even about sex. It was about power. It made me angry she didn't get out from the very start. She wasn't even lured in with good treatment in the beginning and then he eroded her confidence etc. which whilst not good, is more understsnable as to why women put up with crap treatment. Impressionable kids will now think that is ok...

I think you could have fitted at least four more "increasingly"s into that post if you tried, vinegar

There is a story to the book, yes. However I went to see the film this weekend and let me just tell you, I don't think any of you have anything to worry about with regards to the issues raised in this thread.

SPOILERS BELOW

I doubt anyone would want to copy the boring, cold sex the director decided to portray, with or without the riding crops etc.

Not much was shown in the way of bdsm anyway, she had one tiny spanking across his knee, she was tickled and lightly smacked with a crop a couple of times, same with a flogger, then she asked him to do his worst so he gave her six strikes with a belt across her bum, which she decided was a deal breaker and left. Nothing too outrageous.

X-posted there. The books were much better than the film.