Someone said, “Children are the message we will send to a generation we will not see.” Hopefully, we, as a society, are not telling our teens that sex acts are more important than a respectful, loving relationship. Perhaps every woman who read the books should see “Fifty Shades” with her high school or college child and take responsibility for discussing the negative messages the story promotes about abnormal sexual acts, disrespect for one’s sexual partner, and dominance instead of love making. It isn’t frat-boy porn to tease the groom during his bachelor party.įor all the moms who read the books, watching erotic scenes featuring elements of sexual practices involving bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism with friends on Valentine’s Day will be cringe-worthy. It isn’t a guy movie if it is a “relationship” story. It isn’t a girls-night-out film like “Magic Mike,” which looked critically into the conflicted life of a male stripper and showed several hot guys’ perfect chests. Will blindfolds, handcuffs, and whip sales peak in February? What expectations for the night will a young woman or man set as they watch the explicit sex scenes? Talk about awkward. Rated R (admitting 17-year-olds without a parent) to capture high school and college consumers, it isn’t a casual date-night movie for teens.

Young adult couples, many in college, like the virgin turned submissive in the film.

17-to-21-year-old girls without a date on Valentine’s Day.

Just think for a moment about who would show up to the local cinema to see the film: “Fifty Shades” is pitched as a love story, released for Valentine’s Day at major multiplexes across the United States, and targeted to teens, young adults, and women who bought the books. Dominant/submissive graphic sex is the subject and plot and character development of the film. “Fifty Shades of Grey” as a mainstream feature is unprecedented. But we are talking about watching erotica at mainstream cinemas when we are talking about Universal Pictures’ “Fifty Shades of Grey” movie release. Of course, films with explicit sex targeted to their specific audience will sell theater tickets, DVDs and downloads. 1 at $332.8 million, and “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay” grossed more than $317 million. In film, none of the Top 10 blockbusters of 2014 contains an explicit sex scene. But where is she now? Her over-sexualization has won our attention but not our loyalty.

Who can forget Miley Cyrus and the online twerking frenzy she started? She was an Internet sensation and broke the million-dollar sales barrier in May 2014. We see Super Bowl ads and images of young women twerking and think: of course, it does.

As consumers of pop culture, we forget that the myth busters have shown that sex doesn’t sell most consumer products.

Starlet's Web by Carla J. Hanna