Kerri: 50 Shades Of Abuse

Coeur d’Alene Press Online provides a sneak preview of Kerri Thoreson’s Main Street column for Wednesday:

There’s been much debate over the book series and just-released major motion picture, 50 Shades of Grey, among women in particular. I’ve not read the books and have no intention of watching the movie because there are simply more compelling books and movies on my list of things to read and see when I find precious time to do either. A conversation over the weekend with one of my three adult daughters, mother of our 18-year-old grandson, brought home all that’s wrong with the 50 Shades franchise. Said Melani, 43, “I thought I might be the only woman in the country who hasn’t read Fifty Shades of Grey and has no interest in seeing the movie. Call me crazy but stalking, manipulation, bondage and psychological abuse is not love. I certainly don’t want my son to think any of those themes are ‘relationship goals.’ I’ve been happily married for almost two decades without any of those control tactics from my husband.” More here.

Question: Only 11 percent of Hucks Nation said it planned to see “50 Shades of Grey.” I haven’t read the book or seen the movie — and don’t plan to do either. But it doesn’t sound like the fare I would want anyone in my family reading or seeing. Why, with its unhappy themes, are so many people stampeding to the theaters to see it, esp. women?