I went to see 50 Shades of Grey a few weeks ago and I have to admit that I enjoyed the film. My friend who’s read the books was surprised that I liked it. Based on all the op-eds, I was expecting to see an abusive relationship displayed onscreen. Instead, I saw a clever female protagonist exploring her sexuality while benefitting professionally and financially from her association with an established man. There were only 3 instances that I thought were legitimately creepy:
1) Christian goes to Anastasia’s place of employment. I assumed that she’d told him that she worked in a hardware store and that he’d figured it out based on things she told him (or perhaps he’d asked her roommate, since they’d been in contact over email previously) – not based on hardcore stalking.
2) Christian shows up at a bar where Anastasia has been drinking: again, my recollection is that she gave him an address.
3) Christian shows up when Anastasia is in Georgia visiting her mother. Again, I assumed that she had told him details of her destination offscreen (and perhaps clued her in that he’d be coming in a way that she dismissed as an idle threat), because I would have expected her mother to be a little more alarmed at this guy showing up totally unannounced. This was a little extreme, but on the other hand, he interacts directly with her mother. You’d think that if this guy is just popping up wherever because he’s constructed some kind of panopticon orbiting around Anastasia, that she’d be freaking out.
Other potential issues:
– The “nondisclosure agreement” seems not totally unreasonable for someone dating a celebrity, and obviously doesn’t prevent her from discussing things with her BFF/roommate and her family.
– the fact that these 2 obviously have a real relationship (Anastasia meets his family, they appear in public together when he’s notoriously cagey about being photographed with women, he introduces himself to her father) and that he doesn’t insist on a lot of things in their “contract” makes a lot of the other instances of control seem like kink/play.
I didn’t see a whole lot of evidence of Anastasia really striving to establish herself professionally, which bothered me: I’d think that someone just graduating from college would be hustling to begin a career. But on the other hand, she obviously develops some professional skills from this relationship. She gets comfortable appearing publicly with people of a totally different class background – she totally holds her own at dinner with Christian’s family, and doesn’t look like a deer in headlights when they’re photographed together at public events. She learns how to dress professionally and conduct a business meeting and negotiate hard for what she wants. And, she does get an internship offer early on in the film.
Her English degree is never presented as anything less than serious. In fact, it’s used as a signifier that she has deeper ambitions, goals and a developed intellect. Her self-referential jokes about how being an English literature major means that she’s a “romantic” is borne out by the fact that she’s a virgin. There’s no weird fetishization or baggage around it on her end. Obviously, homegirl is waiting for what she wants, and studies what she wants, and she’s going to figure it out. She thinks she is a winner.
I also liked that she worked in a hardware store. On a cynical level, she’s benefitting from being a pretty girl in a masculine setting. But it also shows that she’s willing to learn new things – unless her dad is some super outdoorsy guy who taught her all the things you need to know when she was a kid, she’s obviously picking up new skills/tools as a young adult. It doesn’t seem like she’s rolling in family money – it sounds like she has some scholarships coming in and she supports herself working at a store where a lot of young women might feel uncomfortable.
As an English major who routinely had meltdowns about the fact that I have no skills: it’s refreshing to see a young woman about my age onscreen who has a sense of her inherent worth as a young, beautiful woman with a brain, and isn’t paralyzed by fear. She’s self-reliant, she has healthy friendships with peers her age, she works hard, and she’s obviously devoted to forging her own path while still maintaining relationships with her parents. She understands where her power comes from and how to use it to her own ends.
I also liked how non-judgmental she was about trying new things sexually. She wasn’t shy about telling her lover what she wants and what she doesn’t like. I found it a bit unbelievable that she didn’t google “buttplug” during the course of her contract negotiations, then I realized that she was just being clever.
Overall, I thought it was a fun, campy movie about a smart young lady exploring the world. I wonder how many people hated this movie because the book sucked. I liked it for the same reasons I liked Secretary, and in fact, I might have even liked it a little more because Anastasia started out as kind of a badass.
Like the best Smiths songs, 50 Shades of Grey (the movie) reminds us that “there’s more to life than books, but not much more.” This chick is obviously sheltered, but unlike Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary, comes into the world pretty much as her own person at age 22, with ideas about herself and the life she wants, because she’s spent time with the Great Books. I’m into it.
I don’t think I’ll ever read the books but I will probably watch the sequels.
I haven’t done a whole lot recently that isn’t library-related, but I do think I’ll end up writing a post about what a great time I had in Chicago for ALAMW.