50 Shades of OH HELL NO!

First off, let me start by saying “OHHHHHH HELL NO.” I know this is just a movie. I know it’s for entertainment. But, I would like to put in my two cents about this and probably turning it into a much deeper issue at hand being that this movie is for entertainment purposes. I know a lot of you ladies out there enjoyed it and so did I.

However, I had a few personal analytic points from a Native female perspective (my own). As I was sitting there and seeing Ana (female character) in movie being told what to do, get tied up, and spanked, it rubbed me the wrong way because I thought, “What if that was me?” “Would I ever do something like that and enjoy it?” And my answer was “OHHHHHHH HELL NO.” It’s not because I am judging someone else’s sexual preferences and everyone has their own practices, which I respect. But the male character was a White male and as I was thinking while watching the movie, “What if that was me?” So, in essence, I pictured of I could let a White male treat me like that? OHHHHHH HELL NO. It goes back down to historical oppression of Native peoples. White men used to “torture” us Native females back in the day and why would I think in any shape or form for that to be a turn-on, especially from a White male to a Native female? And then I thought, “What if it was from a minority man?” And my answer remained “OHHHHHHHH HELL NO.” Because coming from my community, there is an extremely high rate of domestic violence. Therefore, I still couldn’t understand how being dominated and tortured would be any different from the harsh negative realities that plague my tribal communities. Below are some statistical rates to give you a picture of violence that occurs among Native women.

 Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence/Physical Assault from

https://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/userfiles/file/Violence%20Against%20AI%20AN%20Women%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

-American Indian women residing on Indian reservations suffer domestic violence and physical assault at rates far exceeding women of other ethnicities. In 2004 Department of Justice report estimates these assault rates to be as much as 50% higher than the next most victimized demographic.
-National annual incidence rates and lifetime prevalence rates for physical assaults are also higher for American Indian and Alaskan Native women compared to other women.
-In a 2008 CDC study, 39% of Native women surveyed identified as victims of intimate partner violence in their lifetime, a rate higher than any other race or ethnicity surveyed.
-According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs at least 70% of the violent victimizations experienced by American Indians are committed by persons not of the same race— a substantially higher rate of interracial violence than experienced by white or black victims
Also, as a personal trait of mine, I don’t like being dominated by men or anyone in general. It would hard for ME to be spoken to in such demeanor, nonetheless, would want to be tied-up, gagged, etc.  However, working in the sexual health field, I know people have their own preferences and that’s cool. To each their own.