Fifty Shades Of Grey Film Analysis

The media has done a poor job of portraying BDSM and the people involved in it. As a result, many portrayals violate the principles of BDSM. The guest speaker Ethan Grier’s presentation helps fight against these vast assumptions by shining light on the exact steps most BDSM practicing couples go through as well as an in detail explanation of the process. Most media representations of kink are based purely on the action. Most television or movies go right into the couple performing kink. This usually starts with the dominant couple tying up the submissive. This portrayal is highlighted in the movie Fifty Shades of Grey produced by Michael James because the main character, Christian Grey, practices BDSM on his partner Anastasia without
Society is lead to believe that people who participate in BDSM have experienced some past trauma that causes them to want to use BDSM as an outlet. A prime example of the media displaying BDSM as a result of trauma is clear within the music video S&M by RIhanna. In the video, Rihanna participate in various forms of BDSM scenes. However, periodically throughout the music video, newspapers flash across the screen with the headline “daddy issues?”. Automatically, people try to justify the reason Rihanna is participating in BDSM as some form of childhood trauma. Another example of this is in the movie Secretary, where the main character Lee is released from a mental institution at the beginning of the movie and struggles with self harm throughout the movie (Steinberg 2002). After her boss introduces her to the lifestyle, she is told she can no longer cut herself. Repeatedly, society tries to justify the reasons for people to enjoy BDSM. Ethan’s presentation goes totally against this idea of BDSM participants having a previous trauma. In fact, he argues that many couples participate in BDSM because it is fun. It is a way to spice things up in the bedroom. BDSM also builds a lot of trust, which is something most couples who participate in traditional sex lose out on because they do not verbalize everything they want. Most couples just “go with the flow” or the “mood”. Ethan explanations for why most people
There is a belief that people who participate in BDSM are trying to process past trauma. Ethan’s presentation differ from this perception from the very beginning. At the start of his presentation, he stated the quote “Kink is to domestic violence as consensual is to sex” He then go on to explain that domestic violence should never occur within a BDSM relationship. Ethan contradicts the entire argument that BDSM is domestic violence when he goes in depth about the Antonym- RACK. RACK stands for risk, aware, consensual, and Kink. This highlight the fact that there are risks when being involved in kink/BDSM relationships. However, you should always feel safe and it should always be consensual. Ethan does a good job explaining the kink spectrum. All people who participate in kinky/BDSM relationships are not inherently the same. Therefore, it is important to realize that everyone is different and has different needs. This is something that is extremely important within the BDSM community because their ultimate goal is to please their partner, not abuse them. The media only shows the aggressive side of BDSM. Whereas, the presentation focused more heavily on the process before and after the