The latest installment of the “Fifty Shades” franchise, “Fifty Shades Freed,” didn’t lead the box office over the weekend with $135.3 million in global ticket sales by using an exemplary storyline — not when it earned a pitiful 13 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.

For those who somehow missed the phenomena of “Fifty Shades,” the three installments are based on erotic romance novels by E.L. James and originate from “Twilight” fanfiction. The story follows an innocent and demure Anastasia as the elusive and irresistible Christian Grey leads her through a sexual awakening in the world of bondage and discipline, dominance and submission and sadism and masochism, or BDSM.

As the franchise progresses, Anastasia gains confidence and power as her relationship evolves into a marriage with Christian in the final film. “Fifty Shades Freed” follows the same trend of its predecessors “Fifty Shades of Grey” and “Fifty Shades Darker,” leading the box office despite overwhelming critical disapproval.

The financial success doesn’t stem from interest in the characters or story, not with the franchise’s cringe-worthy dialogue and confusing plot holes. Even worse, “Fifty Shades Freed” heavily markets new characters and conflicts who only appear momentarily and pointlessly, as if the writers included random ideas in the script they forgot to resolve.

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Luckily for the franchise, no one cares about the story: audiences come for the sex.

 “Fifty Shades” provides a rare depiction of women’s sexual fantasy on the big screen. Society accepts and even expects men to explore their sexuality and fulfill their desires, as examples of men’s sexual fantasies are abundant in media. However, in the majority of films, and in the media in general, women are hypersexualized to satisfy men’s gaze.

Used to sell products, entice readers or attract audiences, women’s bodies are exploited as sexual objects – think Playboy, Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Edition or “Blue Mountain State.” But with increasing media like the “Fifty Shades” franchise and subsequent discussion about women’s sexuality and pleasure, women are evolving in how they operate in their roles as independent sexual beings.

Rebecca Ortiz, media and sex researcher and assistant professor of advertising in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said she’s noticed a shift in how women perceive their sexuality.

“Women may be more open about their sexuality but that does not make them more comfortable with it,” she said. “The open discussion about women’s sexuality may actually put more pressure on women to be sexual. Before, (women) were only sexual objects at the expense of male pleasure. So, the next (shift must be) women owning the agency of their sexual bodies.”

 “Fifty Shades” helped open conversations about women’s sexuality and made women feel less alone in their desires. This is not to say all women crave BDSM, but it does mean women want representation and discussion about their sexual feelings. But to Ortiz’s point, this discussion does not directly put women in control.

Women watching the expression of women’s sexuality through violence and submissive behavior in movies like the “Fifty Shades” franchise may make the average viewer feel more pressure to behave similarly. If this is the case, they may continue to place their partner’s pleasure before their own.

The #MeToo movement and its advocating for women’s rights and empowerment may be the shift needed to finally give agency to women when it comes to their bodies. While the possibility grows more plausible, societal acceptance of women’s agency in sexuality isn’t quite there yet.

The financial success of “Fifty Shades” encourages more representation for the women’s perspective in the future. The franchise proves women want to see their sexuality in media like men can, and it proves they’re willing to pay to see it in film.

Moving forward, the content created will hopefully represent different women’s sexual perspectives, outside of BDSM, so women don’t feel as pressured to engage in sexual behavior simply because it’s portrayed in the media.

Even if “Fifty Shades Freed” makes the film critic in you cringe, the cultural impact on women’s sexuality makes such box office domination well-deserved.

Published on February 13, 2018 at 11:52 pm