Cover image credit to @fiftyshadesmovie on Instagram.
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the end of the “Fifty Shades” series.
Despite pretty terrible critic reviews and backlash on its harmful content, the “Fifty Shades of Grey” franchise is a financial success, if not a critical one. Despite earning a measly 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and being named Worst Picture at the 36th Golden Raspberry Awards, the last movie, “Fifty Shades Darker,” still earned a whopping $571 million at the box office.
Half a billion dollars later, it now holds box office records like largest Valentine’s Day earnings and fourth-highest R-rated earnings ever. And with the opening of “Fifty Shades Freed,” the film is expected to push the trilogy over the huge $1 billion mark.
Just like the release of the first and second films—and in ironic and gimmicky fashion—the new movie is opening the weekend before Valentine’s Day. The obvious irony is that on a day celebrated for expressing romantic love and affection, this story is anything but.
Is it truly an ideal “romance” story?
To catch you up, “Fifty Shades Freed” continues the story’s explicit storyline of a inaccurate version of sexual bondage, domination, submission, and sadomasochism between controlling businessman, Christian Grey, and inexperienced recent college grad, Anastasia Steele (“Ana,” for short).
This dark and twisty trilogy ends with a “picture perfect” wedding followed by some kidnapping drama and then a surprise pregnancy that makes Christian furious, but ends up being exciting for the happy couple. It sounds nice, but the underlying message is quite the opposite.
But first, let’s look at what’s being said on Twitter about the almost-released film. Most people should be outraged that this abuse-packaged-as-romance film is being released at a critical time in the #metoo movement, right? Unfortunately, no. Most of the reaction to the film looks something like this:
And that seems to sum up most of the hype for the final installment of the “Fifty Shades” series. But some of us who know the story have a very different reaction to the racy film’s release.
Toxic messages
We’re not sorry to see the “Fifty Shades” franchise hopefully fade into distant pop-culture memory due to the twisted and warped ideas about sex that these books/movies normalize and romanticize in society.
And not only that, but also capitalizing on the toxic idea that if a victim stays with their abuser long enough, they can change them and ultimately end up in a fairytale relationship.
In order to understand the harmful messages of the books, and now big-budget films, one must see the overall storyline for what it is. For those who aren’t familiar, the story centers around a controlling and sadistic millionaire CEO with a tormented past who seduces a sweet, inexperienced college girl into his selfish world of painful bondage sex.
E. L. James wrote the Fifty Shades trilogy very loosely based on bondage and discipline (B&D), dominance and submission (D&S), and sadism & masochism (S&M) practices, or BDSM for short. But not even those within the BDSM community accept Christian’s behavior as being okay or representative of what happens during “scenes,” or encounters between BDSMers. Instead of a sexual interest, they too call it abuse.
And ultimately, these books normalize and romanticize Christian Grey’s stalking, possessive, and manipulative behavior as being somehow affectionate and expressive of love. The movies aren’t much better, unfortunately.
Even worse about “Fifty Shades,” is that this pretty much is the story. There’s no quality plot, there’s no big surprise ending where he gets real help from a mental health professional for his childhood trauma and Ana leaves him because of his sexual and mental abuse and stalking. It is just an entire series—and now an entire movie franchise—about a handsome, rich businessman who seeks to sexually abuse and act out sexual punishment on unsuspecting women who look like his deceased, drug-addicted mom.
Yeah, that doesn’t sound like “couple goals” to us, either.
In order to truly highlight the extremely negative and harmful ideas contained in the “Fifty Shades” franchise, we made a list, with an accompanying infographic, of what this story is actually teaching. And as you can see, it’s far from a fairytale.
Click here to read about how porn perpetuates sexual violence.
Your Support Matters Now More Than Ever
Most kids today are exposed to porn by the age of 12. By the time they’re teenagers, 75% of boys and 70% of girls have already viewed itRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy —often before they’ve had a single healthy conversation about it.
Even more concerning: over half of boys and nearly 40% of girls believe porn is a realistic depiction of sexMartellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J. R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M. A. H. (2016). “I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it”: A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. Middlesex University, NSPCC, & Office of the Children’s Commissioner.Copy . And among teens who have seen porn, more than 79% of teens use it to learn how to have sexRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy . That means millions of young people are getting sex ed from violent, degrading content, which becomes their baseline understanding of intimacy. Out of the most popular porn, 33%-88% of videos contain physical aggression and nonconsensual violence-related themesFritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2020). A descriptive analysis of the types, targets, and relative frequency of aggression in mainstream pornography. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(8), 3041-3053. doi:10.1007/s10508-020-01773-0Copy Bridges et al., 2010, “Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis,” Violence Against Women.Copy .
From increasing rates of loneliness, depression, and self-doubt, to distorted views of sex, reduced relationship satisfaction, and riskier sexual behavior among teens, porn is impacting individuals, relationships, and society worldwideFight the New Drug. (2024, May). Get the Facts (Series of web articles). Fight the New Drug.Copy .
This is why Fight the New Drug exists—but we can’t do it without you.
Your donation directly fuels the creation of new educational resources, including our awareness-raising videos, podcasts, research-driven articles, engaging school presentations, and digital tools that reach youth where they are: online and in school. It equips individuals, parents, educators, and youth with trustworthy resources to start the conversation.
Will you join us? We’re grateful for whatever you can give—but a recurring donation makes the biggest difference. Every dollar directly supports our vital work, and every individual we reach decreases sexual exploitation. Let’s fight for real love: