This article by Bill Donohue was published by Newsmax on February 9, 2015
Betty Friedan’s classic, “The Feminist Mystique,” launched the feminist revolution of the 1960s. Women, she said, were too often controlled by men, left to live a sterile suburban life that amounted to a “comfortable concentration camp.” Fast forward to Valentine’s Day 2015. Millions of women will celebrate their liberation by going to see, “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the movie based on the book by E.L. James. What they will be celebrating is a young woman’s total domination by a control freak.
The book and the movie are an attempt to take the kink out of kinky, i.e., to normalize sexual deviance. Paradoxically, those most drawn to the book are seeking to find the liberation that Friedan promised. But this time they are not interested in competing with men in the workforce; rather, they are seeking to submit themselves to what might be called Fifty Shades of Slavery. That’s a rough index of the many ways they can indulge their BDSM (bondage, dominance, and sadomasochism) fantasies.
A professional dominatrix in Los Angeles, Mistress Trinity, says she uses the book “in sessions as a torture device.” She is very serious. “Very bad slaves have to read the book aloud and act out scenes. One of my slaves pleaded with me to stop the pain, offering to receive 100 strokes of the cane if he could stop reading.”
Do most women attracted to this book aspire to being a slave? No, but it would be a big mistake to underestimate their interest in being dominated by a man. That there are as many males willing to assume the role of quasi-slavemaster is indisputable.
Fans of the book love Christian, the protagonist who gets Ana to submit to his will (her consent is a sham). He is the consummate manipulator. After she is beaten by him, he attempts to massage her emotions by instructing her to move on. “Don’t waste your energy on guilt, feelings of wrongdoing, etc.” Score one for Christian.
Ana gets assaulted over and over, but unlike many in real life who toy with BDSM, she recovers. Those who think I am exaggerating, consider what Cory Silverberg, an expert on the subject, says, “They’re a common sight in ER departments and something doctors and nurses expect.”
Doctors who have to deal with the embarrassing consequences of BDSM agree.
These practices are not limited to adults. A scientific study of BDSM found that colorectal foreign bodies have been extracted from the rectums of two-year olds. “Bottles, light bulbs . . . fruits or vegetables are just a few of the objects extracted from the colon or rectum. Other, more unusual items include old radio vacuum tubes, coat hangers, and enema kits filled with red wine instead of the standard enema fluid.”
A respected emergency room physician, who also practices BDSM, offers sage advice — beware of glass. “Glass toys seemingly have gained in popularity recently, but so has the dangers associated with them. . . . Glass toys should be avoided at all costs — no matter how tempting.”
It is debatable which is worse, the physical or the psychological damage incurred by BDSM. It is also debatable who else is attracted to “Fifty Shades of Grey,” besides white suburban mothers.
Dr. Judith Reisman, a psychologist who has written extensively on sexual deviance, agrees with the assessment of the book by one of her clinical psychiatrist associates. The book, they maintain, is about pedophilia.
Ana, the female who submits, is given the age of 21 but her “true emotional age is much-much younger.” She has had “no sexual experience whatsoever,” a clear turn-on to pedophiles. Also, she talks “like a girl.” They note that she “talks about cartwheels, and skipping, over and over again,” which is why they conclude that this “is the language and imagery of a girl.”
Even Mistress Trinity sees the girl in Ana. She calls her a “naive college student with an elementary school vocabulary.” Significantly, Sam Taylor Johnson, the filmmaker, describes Ana as a girl. He pointedly says that his goal was to “take this girl on a journey.”
When looked at from this perspective, it makes sense that the opening panel on the website of the book’s author features Christian saying to Ana, “I want to show you my playroom.”
So there may be more than just some innocent fantasies at work. “Fifty Shades of Slavery” aptly describes what else is in play.
Dr. William Donohue is the president of and CEO of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization. The publisher of the Catholic League journal, Catalyst, Bill is a former Bradley Resident Scholar at the Heritage Foundation and served for two decades on the board of directors of the National Association of Scholars. The author of five books, two on the ACLU, and the winner of several teaching awards and many awards from the Catholic community, Donohue has appeared on thousands of television and radio shows speaking on civil liberties and social issues. Read more reports from Bill Donohue — Click Here Now.
