I’ve read all the books, and watched the first movie. There are many flaws in the storyline, from simple plot holes and unrealistic storylines to full blown ignorance regarding the BDSM community. It’s fine if you’re looking for some less-vanilla verbal porn (I think I write better erotica, frankly speaking) but the main issue many of us have with it is the misrepresentation of what a healthy Dom/sub relationship looks like. From the lack of consent by Anastasia in the first book to the strange and sudden marriage (spoiler alert) by the couple, to the odd way in which Christian Grey’s fatal flaws and overall creepiness are glorified throughout the trilogy, it’s just a hot mess.
In the end we have to look at it for what it is, which is a stay-at-home-mom’s uninformed and slightly-less-vanilla attempt at creating some steamy scenes between two characters that already existed (Bella and Edward from the Twilight Series, which I actually don’t hate) that accidentally got popular. The only real downside to it now is that tons of young people are coming into the BDSM community calling themselves “Daddy” “Dom” “Sir” and “Master” without really having earned the title, and tons of other uneducated young people are falling for it and becoming “subs” “bottoms” “slaves” and “littles” to people who don’t really comprehend the full duties a Top of any kind has. It’s causing a lot of heartache and scaring a lot of people out of what would otherwise be a wonderful community by encouraging them to endanger themselves at the hands of what I can only describe as padawans who have yet to know what it means to be a true Jedi.
