When I first read Fifty Shades of Grey, I was not really into it, but I wanted to see what the hype was and sadly, I was not happy. I mean, you take a plain-looking girl and a rich guy and put them together, that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Throughout the book, Christian Grey controls what she eats and how much she exercises, and won’t even let her be with her friends. After all that, he convinces her to get basically abused for his amusement. The ending was the worst part. She broke one of his rules, and he bent her over and whipped her. I mean, that is abuse; she is not a child getting punished for yelling in a store; she is a grown woman getting whipped and is in tears from the pain, and he just enjoys it. Then he is surprised that she dumps him.
I don’t believe that anyone should be abused; it’s completely against everything I believe in. Then we have all these women who absolutely LOVE these books. Romanticized them even, and it’s like I want to snap them out of it. The only part of the book that I personally believe should be romanticized is the first “love” scene, when he takes his time and actually seems to care. Sadly, that is the only scene where he is more loving than controlling. He tries to buy her love with cars and other expensive gifts and doesn’t stop when she asks. She goes to a club to hang out with her two friends, one being a guy who gets a little too friendly, and he decides to “protect” her by beating him up. That is a red flag right there.
This series gives bad ideas to young girls(and guys) as well, giving them the bad idea of how they should be treated or treat others, whether it be men abusing women or vice versa. This goes for any gender. Nobody should be abused, and we should not promote it or romanticize it for others’ enjoyment.
