February 13, 2015

"Madison feminists urge boycott of Fifty Shades of Grey."

Noted.

Why should you have to boycott it? Isn't it better just not to want to see it?

IN THE COMMENTS: mccullough said:
I guess this means no "50 Shades of Gray" project like the "Gatsby" project on Althouse.
The "Gatsby" project was things like this. One sentence from the work, isolated for discussion in contextless isolation. I loved that project. Did you? Vote, and I just might do it.

Should I do a new series like the "Gatsby" project?




pollcode.com free polls

74 comments:

Alex said...

I think this book/movie is moronic, but if it riles up the feminazis I'm ok with it.

Fritz said...

How do they know if it should be boycotted if they haven't seen it?

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Fritz said...

How do they know if it should be boycotted if they haven't seen it?

The girl in the trailers is smiling, so clearly the movie is anti-feminist.

Gusty Winds said...

On the radio this morning the guy reviewing the movie said the audience was laughing "at" the dialog. He said the movie is a train wreck.

But just wondering: Did Madison Feminists call for burning of the "50 Shades of Gray" books?

Pianoman said...

Remember to the Left, it's always Selma 1965, and Montgomery 1955. Boycotts, marches, etc.

It's fun to watch the Left attack itself, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

The problem is, the main chick character in the film doesn't know she is in an abusive relationship.

She needs a professor at a University to tell her, so she can realize she is being raped.

mccullough said...

I guess this means no "50 Shades of Gray" project like the "Gatsby" project on Althouse.

traditionalguy said...

They say the film is not sweaty enough for true s&m lovers' taste, and that demeans women who paid to see the real thing.

A girlcott is what is needed.

YoungHegelian said...

What can one think about a movie when the lead actors in it are acting like both the movie & each other are emitting dangerously high levels of radiation?

With promos like that, a movie doesn't need critics or outraged feminists panning it.

Laslo Spatula said...

I predict a momentary spike in the sales of cucumbers.

Ladies, I will be outside the theatre, waiting for you.


I am Laslo.

chickelit said...

Say, there's quite a history at this blog under the tag "Shades of Grey."

Pure or prurient interest?

YoungHegelian said...

I guess this means no "50 Shades of Gray" project like the "Gatsby" project on Althouse.

No, Gilbert Gottfried beat her to the punch.

Gusty Winds said...

A guy from the IT department stopped by my office this morning and said his girlfriend and like six of her friends were all going to see the movie together for girls night out.

He said it's a big "chick flick" because they all love the books.

Something tells me they'd be a lot more fun than the Madison Feminists.

Pianoman said...

The thing I don't get about this movie is: Why would *ANYONE* see it in theaters? I mean, if you want to watch porn with your partner, it's incredibly easy to do at home. It's not the pre-VCR days, where you have to go to a theater to see it. So what's the attraction to seeing BDSM on the big screen?

Big Mike said...

I wasn't planning to go see "Fifty Shades of Grey" until the feminists insisted on boycotting it.

Tank said...

@pianoman

Because the movie is not about porn. It's about women enjoying what they are not supposed to enjoy, vicariously or otherwise.

Dave Schumann said...

The concept of "boycotting" doesn't make a lot of sense for a movie, because the Offense and the Product are one and the same.

When morons boycott Sodastream, it's not because they don't like home water carbonation equipment, it's because they don't like Jews. The organized "boycott" is necessary because otherwise it's not obvious that this equipment, having no obvious Jewish trappings, should be targeted.

But "organizing a boycott" of a movie that you don't like is nonsensical. Anyone who would participate in the "boycott", i.e., not see the movie, would not see the movie anyway.

Amichel said...

“Does this mean you’re going to make love to me tonight, Christian?” Holy shit. Did I just say that? His mouth drops open slightly, but he recovers quickly.
“No, Anastasia it doesn’t. Firstly, I don’t make love. I fuck… hard. Secondly, there’s a lot more paperwork to do, and thirdly, you don’t yet know what you’re in for. You could still run for the hills. Come, I want to show you my playroom.”

Xmas said...

I'm not sure about boycotting the movie. From the reviews, it's rather tame compared to what happens in the books.

In contrast, I like that the American version of "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" depicted "THE SCENE" from the book. They even did a fake out with a "guy closing the door" shot, poking at people who read the book expecting the movie not to actually show "THE SCENE".

coolkevs said...

I was watching NBC 15 last night - was the lead story and there was ONE (did I say ONE) lady with a sign in front of Point Cinema. Wish I could get such media attention for my pet projects...

steve uhr said...

Don't intend to see it but I recently watched The Fall, a BBC series staring Dorman as a serial killer in Belfast and Gillian Anderson as the chief detective. They are both great. I highly recommend it. On Netflix.

chickelit said...

I just aded a new cocktail to my "Faking Bad" collection. It's called "The Gatsby" and comprises vodka, grapefruit juice and Lillet. Garnish with orange peel.

Cheers!

Nonapod said...

I thought the Onion review was pretty funny.

lemondog said...

I think this book/movie is moronic...

and the author is worth $80 mil but I heard higher amount at $144 mil. Includes a clothing line.

Garbage sells.

Caroline said...

"Fifty" fatigue set in a few weeks ago. I predict it will slink back into the dark corner from which it sprang.

Rusty said...

Yes, but use "The Crying od Lot 49"

FullMoon said...

I was the last guy in the world to see "Deep Throat" in a theatre.It was a nice place, formerly your standard,upscale stand alone theatre.
By time I got up the courage to see the porno film everybody on TV was taliking about, it had pretty much run it's course.
When my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I realized I was the only patron. Nobody else ever showed up. I remember thinking;"This must be what it's like to be a Texas Millionaire.
BTW.Those "Call 555-1212 numbers on the wallfor a BJ? They are not put there by women.Or, so I hear.

Ann Althouse said...

"For La Chalotais, the Breton Parlementeer, accused him not only of poltroonery and tyranny, but even of concussion (official plunder of money); which accusations it was easier to get 'quashed' by backstairs Influences than to get answered: neither could the thoughts, or even the tongues, of men be tied."

Carlyle, Thomas (2006-02-15). The French Revolution (Kindle Locations 64-66). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Ann Althouse said...

"He was sitting in a garage under the street level, full of metal barriers and gates and lockers that swung smoothly on oiled hinges ... I noticed that he wore a pilot's uniform ... Tin planes rested on his shoulders like monster insects ... His face was a mechanic's face invaded by steel and oil ..."

William S. Burroughs. Naked Lunch (Kindle Locations 2734-2736). Kindle Edition.

Ann Althouse said...

"But the statesman of practical sagacity — who loves his country as it is, and evolves good from things as they exist, and who demands to feel his firm grasp upon a better reality before he quits the one already gained — will be likely here, with all the greatest statesmen of America, to stand in the attitude of a conservative."

Hawthorne, Nathaniel (2012-12-08). The Life of Franklin Pierce (Kindle Locations 825-827). . Kindle Edition.

Ann Althouse said...

"And particuarly right now in my stage and condition Jack I am digging the interiors of these homes as we pass them---these gone doorways and you look inside and see beds of straw and little brown kids sleeping and stirring to wake, and the mothers cooking up breakfast in iron pots and dig them shutters they have for windows and the old men, the old men are so cool and grand and not bothered by anything."

Kerouac, Jack (2007-08-16). On the Road: The Original Scroll: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Kindle Locations 5931-5934). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.

Ann Althouse said...

"The women talk a lot more than the men, nowadays, and they are a sight more cock-sure. The men are limp, they feel a doom somewhere, and they go about as if there was nothing to be done."

Lawrence, D. H. (2010-07-13). Lady Chatterley's Lover (The Unexpurgated Edition) (Kindle Locations 7251-7252). Wilder Publications. Kindle Edition.

Ann Althouse said...

"To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and the inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally, by Mind at Large—this is an experience of inestimable value to everyone and especially to the intellectual."

Huxley, Aldous (2009-09-16). The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell (pp. 35-36). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Ann Althouse said...

"Honesty is the recognition of the fact that the unreal is unreal and can have no value, that neither love nor fame nor cash is a value if obtained by fraud— that an attempt to gain a value by deceiving the mind of others is an act of raising your victims to a position higher than reality, where you become a pawn of their blindness, a slave of their non-thinking and their evasions, while their intelligence, their rationality, their perceptiveness become the enemies you have to dread and flee— that you do not care to live as a dependent , least of all a dependent on the stupidity of others, or as a fool whose source of values is the fools he succeeds in fooling— that honesty is not a social duty, not a sacrifice for the sake of others, but the most profoundly selfish virtue man can practice: his refusal to sacrifice the reality of his own existence to the deluded consciousness of others."

Rand, Ayn (1959-07-01). Atlas Shrugged (p. 1019). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Pianoman said...

@Tank:

So it's, um, "empowering"?

What's Oprah's opinion on this?

Freeman Hunt said...

Premature quotation.

Saint Croix said...

Why should you have to boycott it?

Fanatics boycott, that's why.

Isn't it better just not to want to see it?

But then it still exists!

Bruce Hayden said...

I actually don't think that the boycott is a bad idea. Apparently, the relationship is abusive, at least until the end of the third book, where the male lead character discovers that his dominance/sadism is a result of his insecurity with women, or something like that. That would seem to justify women staying in abusive relationships on the grounds that if they just love the guy enough, they can change him, etc. Which is how even strong women can end up in abusive relationships - except that most often, the guys don't change, and, instead, the abuse often escalates over time.

Another part of this, apparently, is that their kinky relationship isn't done according to the best practices of those who typically engage in it. Apparently, you are supposed to have contracts, safe words, etc. They had none of the above.

Finally, my partner's view is that the two main characters are just degenerates. As a result, she had no interest in reading the book. I thought that that was simplistic. As I understand it, he was both a dominant and a sadist, while she was a submissive, without being a masochist. And that was where the conflict arose - between her need for him and his dominance, and her dislike of his sadism. In any case, if I ever read the book, I won't mention it to her, since I would get unmitigated grief over my sexual preferences and the like.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, please change my vote from "Yes, but with something other than '50 Shades of Grey'" to "No." Just plain "no." Thank you.

Tank said...

Pianoman said...

@Tank:

So it's, um, "empowering"?


Um ..... ...... LOL.

I admit. Thinking about it makes me laugh.

Laslo Spatula said...

Alex Comfort, "The Joy of Sex."

Text; every so often a picture. For the line-work.


I am Laslo.

Rick Caird said...

I boycotted the "Vagina Monologues". Of course, it wasn't much of a boycott because I had zero interest in seeing in the first place.

Saint Croix said...

The Joy of Sex is a great book!

My favorite sex book is A Spy in the House of Love. Best title ever, and it works as literature (at least for me).

Saint Croix said...

Sex is really, really, really hard to put into art. In my movie book, I rank a few porn movies. Which is kinda retarded, but I did it anyway. I'm ranking all cinema! Anyway they were D- at best. Aside from whacking off, porn is ridiculous.

The funny thing is that some actual movies were rated lower than porn. I enjoyed that, too.

Laslo Spatula said...

With my next choice I shall win this infernal contest and stand manly atop the comments section with wind in my glorious hair.

Nabokov's "Lolita"

From Wiki:

"(Lolita) is his most famous novel, and often considered his finest work in English. It exhibits the love of intricate word play and synesthetic detail that characterised all his works."

Intricate word play!

Synesthetic detail!

And a young chick!

How could this NOT be the choice?

I am Laslo.

Ann Althouse said...

"Administrative assistants worth their health benefits are synaptically evolved to the point where they can banter, accept compliments on a Spandex-and-tulle ensemble, effortlessly deflect unauthorized info-probes, listen to something bass-intensive on personal-stereo headphones, and word-process effortlessly to the headphones’ backbeat, all simultaneously."

Wallace, David Foster (2009-04-03). Infinite Jest (p. 513). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.

Jim in St Louis said...

“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Anonymous said...

I don't care about 50 Shades of Grey. I consider it to be "real porn for females" of a type that doesn't appeal to me because it's not remotely my fantasy whether at my age now or when I was 20-something, so there is nowhere for me to hook in even in a "guilty pleasure" way. But I don't hate it. Women should have their own embarrassing porn, I suppose. It's an updated bodice ripper. I think it's a hoot that the character's name was originally Edward Cullen from Twilight.

I can see why feminists would be upset because it depicts kind of sad inner dynamic when looked at in the cold light of day, but then so does most porn. And I feel a teeny tiny bit for the "B & D community" who have to suffer a massively popular mischaracterization of what their community is about - or so they are continually saying. They recommend seeing the original B&D Mr. Gray played by James Spader in "Secretary" with Maggie Gyllenhaal instead.

buwaya said...

Nabokov, but "Pnin"
Its about a professor, after all, at what seems to be a public university.

n.n said...

50 Shades of Grey and other fetish education is the least of your problems. Think of the children! The price of feminism has been too high and has consequences beyond your social status.

traditionalguy said...

That is 50 comments plus 1. We really need the last killed for kicks.

Anonymous said...

I can't in good conscience vote for "Fifty Shades of Grey," but I have to say the concept is hilarious.

You could start with the title, noting the artful use of the British spelling to convey that the male lead is not merely dominant but classy, which makes everything all right.

traditionalguy said...

As for the next best novel for paragraphs to study, there is only one choice: Lonesome Dove. All of life is in Lonesome Dove.

Anonymous said...

Xmas: Männer som hatar kvinnor, the Swedish version, also did both the anal rape scene and the retaliation scene. I recommend seeing it if you haven't; it gave Liz Salander far more agency than the American version.

traditionalguy said...

Lonesome Dove Dialog:

Woodrow Call: If that ain't bad enough, you got all them Greek,words on there too.

Gus: I told you Woodrow a long time ago it ain't Greek, it's Latin.

Woodrow: Well what does it say in Latin. For all you know it invites people to rob us.

Gus: Well the first man that comes along that can read Latin is welcome to rob us, far as I'm concerned. I'd like a chance t'shoot at a educated man once in my life.

If Gus' dialogue doesn't apply to Scott Walker, what does.

Saint Croix said...

I need to read Nabokov! Kubrick's version is lots of fun. That's definitely art, all the sex is off-camera. And Kubrick was funny back then, very funny.

n.n said...

traditionalguy:

You can't handle the truth. That said, 50 or 52. 51 keeps women, and men, sober.

tim in vermont said...

I vote for Lolita. If we are going to do it, do it right. Have some standards. I read that and gave up on being a writer. How can anybody compete with that One would just have to accept that writing is going to be a job, like any other, for the rest of us mortals.

Francisco D said...

An FWB gave me the book. It was boring. i read better soft-core porn as a teenager in the sixties. "Candy" was a lot more exciting.

Guildofcannonballs said...

The best current writing today is found on TV. The show is The Middle on ABC. Starring the great Patricia Heaton and written by women, brilliantly clean wholesome life-affirming inspiration just begins to describe a few of its attrbutes.

Michael said...

Please, not the dreaded three name Wallace man. How about Henry Miller's Sexus?

Fiftyville said...

Yeah, sure, bring back the Gatsby project, just call it "Fifty Shades of Jay".

jr565 said...

I wouldn't mind a 50 shades of Gray project, if only to show how horrendous the writing actually is. I can't beleive women are driving the popularity of this drivel.

mccullough said...

I'm up for Infinite Jest, but not sure if anyone else in the commentariat is.

I haven't read 50 Shades of Grey. Like the Da Vinci Code and the Harry Potter books, it has attained Phenomenon status.

When I was a kid, I browsed through a bodice ripper (those Pink Ink Romance books with the Fabio guy on the cover). I wasn't sure what to make of it. The sex scene language seemed a bit overwrought. But there is a market for these books.

So is 50 Shades of Grey the ultimate bodice ripper?

Deb said...

Fifty shades began as fan fiction on Facebook.

n.n said...

Old-school feminists. Generational ideologies, progressive morality, leave everyone behind, eventually.

m stone said...

Pale King by David Foster Wallace

themightypuck said...

East of Eden but it is too long.

Saint Croix said...

5 Reasons Pornstars Hate 50 Shades of Grey.

Phaedrus said...

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

eg "The best students are always flunking out."

Laura said...

"She needs a professor at a University to tell her, so she can realize she is being raped."

And a lawyer to negate the contract she signed.

"Later that night, Ana goes out drinking with her friends and ends up drunk dialing Christian, who informs her that he will be coming to pick her up because of her inebriated state. . . . Later, Ana wakes to find herself in Christian's hotel room, where he scolds her for not taking proper care of herself."

At this point, only a campus tribunal will do. Or a Slutwalk.

Laura said...

"Warrior’s Woman [by Johanna Lindsey] travels far into the future— where a fearless intergalactic traveler hoping to save her endangered home world seeks a champion on a planet of strapping barbarians . . . and finds herself making very physical contact with a truly magnificent savage."

And she gets preggers, despite a vestigial(!) uterus -- truly an unwritten screenplay begging for ink.

Rusty said...

"Everyone loves cream, they said, and we love spirits and whiskey. But in the same bottle? Are you sure? We just smiled."



Baileys' bottle.

Kirk Parker said...

Thanks for the mansplaining about boycotts, Dave Schumann!