It has been interesting to read all of the hype, hear about various interviews, and overhear conversations between people about the movie (based upon the book), Fifty Shades of Grey.
While I am not in the habit of giving this space over to others, for this week and next week I want to condense and borrow from the writings of Hailey Smith. I am doing this for three reasons: 1) this information is timely, 2) she offers a woman’s perspective, and 3) her article does an outstanding job of addressing a cultural issue.
“Picture this. You’re in the kitchen warming up supper and your husband comes home from work. He says hello, kisses you, and lays a plastic bag on the counter. In the plastic bag is book with a naked lady on the cover in a provocative pose. You get on Facebook, and you see he has liked the fan page of the book. You see that he has shared the book’s movie trailer on his page. You see that he is discussing with all his guy friends publicly who should be the actress portraying the naked girl on the book cover. He is discussing which lady in Hollywood is the hottest, has the biggest breasts and butt, prettiest face, etc. He is saying how he wishes the naked lady’s character was real. How “she” is so “fine”. How “she” turns him on. Picture that he logs off Facebook, gets in bed with you, turns on his lamp and starts reading this book- beside you. No shame. No hiding anything. Then he kisses you goodnight and goes to sleep without saying anything about any of that.”
“I’m telling you right now. If that ever happened to me, The Man would wake up by a punch to the throat and see that he doesn’t have any eyebrows left cause I had shaved them off in his sleep. Straight up! Some of ya’ll are thinking that’s violent and crazy and that I need Jesus. You are right.”
“I can remember social media networks being covered up by ladies sharing how excited they were about seeing who was going to portray Christian Grey in the movie, even debating who would be the “sexiest” guy.”
“We as ladies are living a double standard. We’re real quick to call men out for being pigs or dogs, but we somehow find these books and movies permissible- like they’re not as bad.”
“Here’s the problem with that.”
- It’s sin. Pointblank. Sin is sin and lust is a sin. We can roll our eyes all we want to because we feel like what we’re doing is not as bad as “other things”, but at the end of the day- we know the truth. Lust is a sin. Period.”
Hang on – To be continued next week.