Fifty Shades of Grey

This weekend, I heard of a situation that is common in the world; a boy playing too rough. As the motto goes, boys will be boys, yet I wonder, why do we accept men at their basest selves? Why do we allow the media to perpetuate stereotypes that men are dominating and women are submissive and subject to men? The situation was that a grown woman was hanging out with some friends when one of the men began to wrestle her. He hurt her, maybe unintentionally the first time, but instead of backing off, continued to rough house her as she told him to stop, that he was hurting her. The night concluded with him tying her hands up and holding her to the floor. Her wrists were bloody, to the point that she was embarrassed to go to work. The man continues to claim he did nothing wrong. This situation isn't new, nor is it uncommon. Sadly, it is understandable behavior due to the popular acceptance of "erotic fiction" as we find in the widely acclaimed and New York Times hit, Fifty Shades of Grey. Fifty Shades of Grey's disturbing themes are a threat to gender equality and all of the wonderful advances society could be making in marriages and families. Feminism was at its beginnings, a push for women to be accepted as intellectual beings, creative persons who could contribute to society in many ways. But what has the result been? A higher level of pornography, demeaning books, movies that show women to be merely dangerous and manipulative, using their feminine wiles to bring down a powerful man; the femme fatale.  I lived for a year and a half in a country where women are still suppressed in every way. It is a male dominated society in which women are expected to submit to their husbands without question. This country fears feminism and rejects its positive advancements because they have watched what our beautiful country has become. The domestic violence rate in that country is 60-80%, yet there are virtually no measures being taken to help the situation. These women would love the chance to have marriages without abuse, while on the other side of the world, we celebrate stories that imprison women. Why we would accept this book which contradicts our very cause in women's liberation, I have no idea. I am confident that this book can do nothing but add to the struggles our society is already facing with broken marriages due to pornography addictions and the alarming rate of domestic violence and sexual assault/ rape. Women, stop allowing us to be demeaned. Stop accepting eroticism as normal.