Toni,

I am disgusted and fascinated by the phenomenon that is 50 shades of crappy crappy crap because I think it so adequately shows what so many people think of some many things.
It highlights so many issues regarding socioeconomic standing and criminality, the constant convert and overt criticism of feminine sexuality, gender identity, confusion and sexuality, consent and coercion and it's sort of really fascinating except it's all unintentional and actually it's really freakin awful.

Zeil:

You seem to be saying that women are victims of their culture and unable to fight against it. Then you seem to be blaming men for their behaviour towards women which is also part of the culture.

Are men any less victims of the culture? If they do not treat women according to the dictates of their religion then they will become victims themselves. They will be seen as weak and non-observant of Islam. They can be ostracized and terrorised for their lack of observance. They could even lose their jobs and be unable to support their families. What would you have them do?

Not everything is about gender and it is a very naive attitude to project western freedoms onto men who live in oppressed cultures.

If you truly cared about people you would see the whole picture and dedicate yourself to the dismantling of the culture which impinges on human rights and not just women’s rights. You would not use the plight of such people to score cheap points about domestic violence.

Hey Phantom,

Happy Good Friday if you obverse. Some good points there however I don't believe I levelled any attacks at the men whom do the beating. My critique was for the people in this society judging those women. Of course those men are victims, of course they are caught within the same system. Hell even Christian Grey is a product of his upbringing. My point was that's it's incredibly naive, insensitive and actually forms part of the problem to say that once these woman migrate to a country where they are protected by law that if they choose not to utilise that service then they are complicit. It's similar to the questioning some people do of rape victims who choose not to report.
As to the climate of domestic abuse in australia I could write a whole book about the culture of misogyny but that's an entirely different issue and no I don't need to score any cheap points on it Phantom.

Also I will point out that at this point that I'm a sociologist at heart. I will always look at things from the stance of 'what conditions in society contributed towards you doing x,y or z' it's important because as a society we can't chance individual people but we can change our own and cultural attitudes and conditions that lead to negative situations. Having said that I don't absolve people of personal liability. Everyone is in control of there own actions in the end and it would be naive and insensitive to suggest otherwise. It is also equally naive thoygh to go 'oh well but they choose to do it, no one had a gun to there heads... every action has consequences... this one time I did something even though I knew I'd face this consequence and I did it anyway...' and so on. Easy answers are no ones friend.

Zeil:

Those women comply with the behaviour towards them. No one who is raped complies with the behaviour toward them. Those women agree to let the behaviour continue. No rape victim would agree to be repeatedly raped.

In Muslim countries it might be reasonable to comply with the behaviour because complaining about it would be pointless. It would not stop. In Australia it is not pointless. You can complain and it can be stopped so there must be some other reason why they are prepared to accept it.

It is acceptable to these women because they are emotionally dependent on their religion and you cannot cherry-pick which parts of Islam you accept. Either that or they are emotionally dependent on domestic relationships. The problem is their emotional dependence. They are not free of their emotional dependence. It is reasonable to question this dependence of anyone.

It is good that such questions be put to them because emotional dependence on religion is detrimental to society and if they become part of our society it is important to challenge that dependence for the good of society.

Dear Zeil,

I've got to admit that I liked the movie -
"Fifty Shades of Grey." As well as its sequel -
"Fifty Shades Darker." And I'm looking forward to
the third upcoming film to find out what were the initial
causes of Christian Grey's behaviour (abused as a
child?) and whether or not he is capable of changing.

Can we change human behaviour through certain influences
like love, education, and so on. I really don't know the
answers to those questions. However, I do know that in
the case of domestic violence we have to at least try to
let women know the options that they have available in
this country and what their rights are.

Foxy,

Sorry I should've been less judgemental regarding 50 Shades' audience. Many people enjoyed it for a wide variety of reasons.

I'll even admit the bare bones premise of the story makes for an interesting concept. As I said it and societies reaction to it unintentionally highlights some really big issues.

Having said that I think in its entirety there's no getting around that the cons outweigh the pros of it. The largest issue of which being that many people view it as a fun kinky romance without subtext or social commentary.

Also on a personal note I found Christians justification for his treatment of woman and his distortion of a subculture tissue thin, egocentric, vaguely sociopathic and at the same time really boring.