It’s fiction says Mia Freedman. So what is all the fuss about?
Mia Freedman has defended the Fifty Shades of Grey film by saying we should all be grown up enough to realise we don’t have to agree with its contents.
The film, released in Australia today, has attracted criticism for encouraging and glorifying abusive relationships, with a growing movement of womens’ groups calling on a boycott of the film.
Nine network presenter Lisa Wilkinson called it “domestic violence dressed up as erotica.”
Mamamia’s Rosie Waterland said it left her on the verge of tears.
But Freedman says, in the Mamamia Outloud Podcast, that she is surprised by the outrage.
“It’s FICTION. Fiction is not a community service announcement. Fiction is not a government program. There are bad people in life. There are bad people in fiction. Is it not being taught in schools. It is a MOVIE. IT is a BOOK”.
“Every movie can’t have the responsibility of sending a message,” Freedman said.
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Top Comments
I saw the film with a bunch of my friends last night and we all enjoyed it. I laughed, along with the rest of the audience at the clunky dialogue and some very silly scenes. But it was an enjoyable two hours of entertainment, of fantasy and drama and emotion and comedy and even love and human f*ckedupness. I was expecting to be upset or shocked with most of the reviews I've read and I wasn't sure I should go see it, if I was supporting something like violence against women. It doesn't. It doesn't.
Fiction might not have to "have a moral" each time, but the more fiction that glorifies and normalises emotional and physical abuse, the more people are going to think it's ok. I have no problem with BDSM sex as long as it's SAFE, SANE, and CONSENSUAL, which is not portrayed in this film. Even more, removing the sex, the relationship itself is horrifying. Ana is emotionally abused, controlled, treated like an object. It's glorifying abuse, maltreatment and misogyny.