I love “Fifty Shades Freed” and all, but Anastasia’s relationship with Christian Grey is extremely unhealthy. Don’t get me wrong. The movies are great to watch with your friends during a wine night for sheer entertainment, but the media is encouraging abuse, and most girls don’t even see it.
Here are some specific ways “Fifty Shades Freed” is making an unhealthy relationship “sexy.”
Caution, there are spoilers!
Control
In the beginning of the movie, Anastasia and Christian are on their honeymoon on a nude beach. Ana wants to take her top off so she can tan her back, but Christian freaks out. When he goes for a swim and returns to her sleeping with her boobs out on a nude beach, he gets very upset with her, and they leave. They are on a NUDE beach, so who cares if her top is off?! He takes this a little too seriously.
Isolation
Christian tells Ana he wants her to go straight home after work while he is away in New York. First of all, NO. If you want to go out with some friends for a little happy hour, then do it. No man should ever tell you that you can’t do something. Just because he is going to be out of town, he thinks she is incapable of taking care of herself.
Ignoring
When Christian finds out Ana went out after work, he acts angry and ignores her. She even tries to make up with him…in the shower, but he cordially declines.
Frequent “he is going to kill me” comments
More than once, Ana said, “He is going to kill me!” in a joking matter. However, the topics those comments regard are not much of a joke. While shopping, she tries on a dress with a low cut back and says she shouldn’t wear it because Christian would “kill her.” This brings me back to the swimsuit top problem. Let a girl wear and do what she wants. It’s her body, so she should be the one deciding what goes on it.
Secrets
Ana finds out that Christian is keeping important secrets about Jack Hyde from her. I don’t know about you, but honesty and confiding in your significant other is very important. His idea of “protecting her” is really just keeping secrets.
Possessive
When Ana tells Christian she is pregnant, he yells, leaves the dinner table and goes out with Elena, a.k.a. “Mrs. Robinson,” for drinks and returns drunk to Ana. While she is helping him to bed, he says he is afraid Ana will choose the baby over him. Like dude, grow up. It’s your child. You should be happy for wife, not afraid she will prioritize the baby over you.
I love watching the “Fifty Shades” series as a guilty little pleasure, but women need to see that the media is promoting abusive relationships through it.