>>2 My God... This is utter bullshit. So sick and tired of people getting on the hate train when they have either 1) never read the book or 2) over analyzed it.
I hear often those of the BDSM community found the portrayal offensive, because the idea is about mutual pleasure.
There was mutual pleasure for both the main characters until he took her into his playroom. SHE was the one who ASKED HIM how much pain he likes, and HE was the one that TOLD HER that she could stop whenever she wanted.
This is the point where the title comes in and the character herself literally says that he is "50 shades of fucked up". It's at this point in time, that it's not about BDSM anymore; it's about the childhood sexual abuse he had suffered.
In the beginning she finds him too controlling, and his sexual desires were too extreme, and so she left him.
Get it? SHE LEFT HIM.
Having friends and family in abusive relationships, I know that this is something very hard to do, and includes so much emotional turmoil... I didn't know if I could do it... I really, truly admired Ana here. And hurts me and angers me how people diminish her as being a hapless victim in an "abusive relationship".
When they met again in the second book, they outlined what went wrong...
He acknowledges that he problems and he will work towards confronting them, and she says that she wants to support him through the process and try to be as understanding as she can.
I feel like people who see this differently, can't be as open minded as Ana, and comprehend what it's like to have to actually struggle to understand someone because of their past abuse and help them make a change that they themselves want to make.
That wasn't her falling back towards an abusive relationship; that WAS a relationship. You can either leave each other or work to improve yourself for each other in order to make it work.
At the end of the book, Grey shuns his past, unhealthy, abusive relationship with the woman who abused him, for a more healthy and supportive relationship with Ana.
Why the fuck didn't anyone care about this? Because Grey is a man, and no one saw this as an incredible victory for himself?
Once again, the hate wagon focuses on the negative, and also is a bit sexist.
The 3rd book was the last stretch of Grey's need for psychological need for control over Ana, and yes, there were fights, but also SHE LEFT HIM AGAIN.
And once again, he realized his wrongs, and wished to improve himself even more for the sake of their marriage and child.
I won't read that site, because I've read at least 10 others, and it's sickening what all people will say to down someone else's success.
What I will say though, is that one of my friends who had recently came from an abusive relationship, read the first book, and because the break up was too close to home, she didn't want to read the 2nd or 3rd.
So I wouldn't recommend this book to those who have experienced physical or sexual abuse simply because Christian Grey was sexually abused, and the physical attributes of their BDSM scenes might not work for someone who has survived physical abuse.
Overall, this book was a good, kinky read
for people who are into Good, Kinky Reads...Personally, I am going to re-read the first book, be at that theater the day it opens with wine and a vibrator, and I'm going to literally enjoy the fuck out of it. >=)
