Fifty Shades of (Stupid) Grey is Abuse

For the last month we've been seeing promotional trailers for the Fifty Shades of Grey movie. In case you've been living under a rock, it's based on a "trilogy" of books in which a naive and malleable Anastasia Steele is besotted by Christian Grey, rich, handsome, and seriously into domination.

Hardly a rom-com, the film's release on Valentine's Day weekend, a commercialization of love at its worst, is very curious. Or perhaps it's a brilliant marketing ploy. Whatever.

The point: most of the plot involves Anastasia's loss of "innocence" as she gets to know Christian. The guy has some serious issues with respect to women -- and his method of showing "love" to them is not at all romantic. Domination involves the subjugation of one individual to another. Christian has a whole room in his mansion devoted to just that concept. And he intends to dominate Anastasia in more ways than one, some potentially painful.

If Christian Grey was toothless and had sallow skin, if he were not rich, if he did not have a helicopter and a gazillion dollars, would his antics be less acceptable? Probably in too many cases. And completely flabbergasting that supposedly savvy women don't see through that.

In a day and age in which women like Malala Yousafzai endure being shot in order to get an education, where rebels are selling young girls into slavery and others are physically mutilated -- it's incredible to think that women in a supposedly enlightened country like the United States are willing to read and watch such drivel.

Amen, and pass on abuse.