Fifty Shades of Unrealistic
February brought us the sequel to “Fifty Shades of Grey” and with it a whole new wave of unrealistic female stereotypes.
After the my friends and I left movie theater the one critique that we heard most from the women leaving was that we saw way too much of her and not enough of him. Why was this? According to the textbook Critical Media Studies by Brian L. Ott and Robert L. Mack this might be because women are viewed as the sex object while media “tend to identify men as sexually powerful and pursuant.”
The textbook identifies three other stereotypes of men and women in American Media: active vs passive, public vs private, and logical vs emotional. These can all be seen throughout the movie when comparing the main characters, Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.
Active and passive. When Christian gets in a helicopter crash and goes missing. The idea that Christian can fly a helicopter is just one of the elements included that make him seem capable and daring. He also owns his own private jet and flies down to Georgia to visit her. While there, he takes her gliding and pilots the glider. All the while Ana is represented as passive in that he is always afraid for her well being. Her fragility is also shown through her petite figure.
Public versus private. Christian throughout the movie tries to convince Ana that she should quit her job and just stay at home. Since Christian has so much money, he is convinced that the money alone will be enough to make her happy. Although she shoots this down every time he brings it up, the idea that he should be the primary breadwinner is still widely accepted and represented in America and our media.
Logical and emotional. Back to the helicopter crash, the women are the only weeping ones while the men are obviously upset but still more rational than their female counterparts. Another scene in the movie when it is obvious that Christian is the “logical” one occurs when his ex submissive breaks into Anastasia’s apartment and Christian bounds into the apartment and takes control immediately while Ana is upset both at the situation and Christian taking care of Leila. Following this she goes out drinking with a friend because she is so overwhelmed with emotion.
There were multiple other issues that we noticed with the movie including the fact that whenever he decided that they would have sex, it happened. She never complained nor protested when this occurred. A positive representation of feminism in the movie is when Ana is cornered by her boss while staying late at work. When he tries to sexually assault her, she is able to fight him off and run away. This is countered when Christian’s body guard goes into the building and from what we can infer he beats him. Christian’s over-domineering demeanor takes over and the boss is fired. Ana is then promoted in his place through Christian’s sly handy work, implying that she needed him to help her get a high ranking position within the company, which he later buys.
