Fifty Shades of Grey: Excited or mad?

The erotic romance novel by E.L. James has created scandalous opinions since the release of the first book, Fifty Shades of Grey, in 2011.

The story of Anastasia and Christian seems to drive women crazy. The novel entered the top 10 best-seller books list with approximately 100 million copies sold, from which 45 million belong to the US.

Fifty Shades is now in eighth place, beating The Da Vinci Code and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, according to the International Business Times.   

The erotic sections of the book are still a mystery for the film; everybody wonders how much of it they will actually show.

The sex scenes have been interesting experiences for the actors Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, the main characters in the film.

Dornan shared a couple of stories about his training for the movie. He told E! he went to a sex party and had the opportunity to see a dominant with two submissives in action.

E! published Dornan’s accounts on their official Facebook page. “It was a better time than what I expected, but I had to shower before even touching my daughter. I felt so dirty just to watch, even though it was fun,” Dornan said.  

The trilogy’s fans increase every day. They are becoming more and more anxious for the film’s release in theaters this Valentine’s Day. However, some people do not like the idea of a Fifty Shades of Grey movie.

Some scientists have stated that the film will take us back to a “feminist era” and that it portrays women disrespectfully. According to an article from TheDailyMail.com, these scientists are still figuring out whether women present more risks to be in abusive relationships before or after reading the books.

Professor Amy Bonomi, of Michigan State University, said in the article mentioned above, that it is a potential problem either way. “If women experienced adverse health behaviors such as disordered eating first, reading Fifty Shades might reaffirm those experiences and potentially aggravate related trauma,” Bonomi said.

The incredible amount of sold copies seems to contradict the apparent risks of reading these books and watching the movie. What do our students think about the release of this film? Here is the answer.

Sophomore Krysten James seems to be very excited for this film. “I’ve never read an entire novel until I fell in love with Fifty Shades. Now I can’t wait to see what the movie brings,” James said. “Reading the book has inspired me to read more provocative books.”

To the contrary, junior Sierra Herndon, who considers Fifty Shades to be abusive to women in our society, expressed negative thoughts towards the movie on her Facebook status during the Super Bowl. “Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love the ‪#‎LikeAGirl and the ‪#‎NoMore adverts during the Super Bowl, but then they air a Fifty Shades of Grey commercial,” she said. “It's great that we as a society are moving towards the truth that women are equal parties with men but we still have so, so far to go,” Herndon said.

Sophomore Amanda Bazan is very opinionated towards this topic. “The books: I loved. The sex of course was steamy and exciting,” Bazan said. “BDSM (Bondage and Discipline [BD], Dominance and Submission [DS], Sadism and Masochism [SM]) is something not a lot of people experience, and if they had an interest in it, they were apprehensive of expressing it.”

Bazan believes these books brought more people "out" into the community of BDSM because 100 million people purchased the books; meaning potentially 100 million people are now "open" to like BDSM. “I'm so excited about the movie. Although the books had more ‘shazam’, it would be hard to incorporate that into a movie that will go out in theaters,” Bazan said. “The director had to cut some things from the movie to get a lower rating (it is rated R). I'm still excited to see what the actors and the director composed,” she said.

It seems like our students present controversial thoughts towards Fifty Shades. What do you think? Tell us via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtags #FiftyShades and #TheCampusOU.