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Commentary: ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ has many seeing 50 shades of red

Comments (3)
  1. Lance Brown says:

    Excellent piece. Thank you.

    As someone who has submitted critical comments related to this subject area in the past I feel obligated to offer positive words in praise of a thoughtful response to this cultural phenomenon.

    My request/suggestion would be that the author consider posting about or producing other material that addresses why so many (especially so many women) are attracted to these books and now the film. Perhaps that has already been done and I’m just not aware of it. But I think that needs to be dealt with seriously.

  2. Ingrid says:

    Wonderful article, very well written and thought out. Thank you for your references. This is something that has been bothering me about the marketing and sweeping of this story. Too many young girls and elderly women will think this is what a loving relationship is all about.

  3. Amy k says:

    I’ve always been anti 50 shades for many reasons but what troubled me was that – no matter how difficult, no matter how out of our comfort zone it is – I somehow realised that the Christian response to it couldn’t be to just ignore it or simply dismiss it as porn.
    I think Jesus would have gone head to head with it – as He had that knack of doing in all difficult situations – and engage with it on some level that glorified God’s love over the ‘love’ portrayed in the series. I had no idea how to do this though and I like that Christian blogs and writers have tried to do so. The problem was always that – non believers – had no interest in this standpoint and I didn’t have the skill to get over that wall.
    I tweeted a lot about my opposition to it and someone sent me a link to a Christian fiction response that takes the original format of the book and then ‘mirrors’ it with a story about God’s love taking in concepts like ‘doulos’ and salvation along the way.
    I’ve given it to some friends – the same ones that had no interest in Christian blog posts – and they’ve really been engaged and informed by it and have gone on to engage in real talks about faith underpinned by it. One is (tentatively) attending church.
    For me that underpins that the key in the debate is – not to preach to one another about it – but to use it as a chance to outreach. If you find the debate difficult to engage in u may find it helpful. amzn.to/1Ac2x9c