Blaming The Symptoms

I've blogged about this before, specifically about Barbie and body image, but another case has come to my attention.  50 Shades of Gray is causing unhealthy relationships.

Mixed heavily with rants about 50 Shades of Gray are those mourning Lesley Gore.  You know Lesley - she sang "Judy's Turn To Cry" and "Maybe I Know".  Roughly fifty years ago, these songs were huge hits.  For those among my hordes of readers who don't know, let me summarize.  "It's My Party" tells us about how, at Lesley's party, Johnny dumps her for Judy and she has to explain why she's crying.  "Judy's Turn To Cry" tells us about how Lesley gets Johnny back - she kisses another guy and Johnny hits him.  The entire song "Maybe I know" can be summed up with the lines "Maybe I know that he's been a-cheatin' but what can I do".

"I Love Lucy" was a hilarious show about a woman's misadventures, largely caused by her stark terror of her husband.  "The Honeymooners" featured a man threatening his verbally abusive wife with violence.  "Xena: Warrior Princess" has Xena keeping her magically conceived child (her partner Gabrielle blithely assumes that Hercules was the father) just a couple years after ordering Gabrielle to kill HER magically conceived child. "The Walking Dead" featured Lori, who only had a backbone when defending her husband/marriage. I've heard that the "Twilight" relationship is less than healthy, but having not read/seen more than the first book/movie, I really can't say.

A popular meme about 50 Shades is "Women don't watch porn, but they read the hell out of it".  This isn't news - women have always read porn in the form of The Bodice Ripper.   Historical romance, thus the woman is wearing a bodice, which the man rips off of her.  Rips.  Usually to her protests. But that's okay, because she eventually becomes overwhelmed with desire.  She gets grabbed against her will, has her clothes ripped off, and then gets turned on.  "Gone With The Wind" features marital rape in the same vein.  

So don't tell me 50 Shades of Gray is gonna cause unhealthy relationships.  If anything, the opposite is true.