Fifty Shades of Gender Roles… Even Shakespeare Knew Better

   

Even grumpy cat knows better.

     Christian Grey is the epitome of the masculine ideal. A main character in the controversial yet hot-button Fifty Shades series, Grey is a drop-dead gorgeous 27-year-old self-made billionaire, a Harvard dropout, and a skilled piano player. Sure, he has some emotional baggage, but his abusive past does little to prevent his literal “dominance” over his love interest, the average-looking and painfully shy Anastasia Steele. In both the book and the movie adaption of the series, Steele is portrayed as an insecure and submissive woman who is desperate to win the affection of her dream man; a man who just happens to gain pleasure from having his “submissive” fulfill his every (sometimes kinky) desire. In the midst of the rise of feminism in cultures around the world, the popularity and glorification of the rampant gender roles depicted in their relationship conjures up images of a time when men in white wigs had wives who were forbidden to show their ankles. 

     Shakespeare lived during the Elizabethan era, a time where women were most definitely confined to a dependent role on male members of society. The horrifically outdated sexist themes of the Fifty Shades series are easily exposed when compared to one of Shakespeare’s most famous works, Macbeth. In Act I Scene 7 of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth reprimands her husband for his cowardice and hesitation before murdering King Duncan for the title of King. She cruelly berate Macbeth while describing how she would have plucked her nipple out of a breastfeeding baby’s mouth if she had promised to. Although Lady Macbeth does question Macbeth’s manhood in the process, it is justified because of the patriarchal nature of Europe’s society during Macbeth’s time of publication. The more important thing to notice is Macbeth’s reaction to his wife’s outburst-- and how it compares to Grey’s response when Steele “defies” him. 

     Macbeth listens to his wife’s advice, and proceeds to murder King Duncan in his bed that very night. He does not respond with violence or ask her how she dares to speak to him in that way. He respects his wife as a human being and values her opinion, assigning it worth and taking it into consideration. Now, compare that to a time when Steele bypassed telling Grey about her visit to her mother in Georgia, and Grey finds out while they are both having dinner with his family instead. Significantly less severe than an all-out rant and attack on Grey’s manhood, Grey reacts in a way that would shock a feminist back into the Elizabethan era. Without Steele’s approval, he immediately excuses the both of them from the dinner table and throws a fit about how Steele was disrespecting him by retaining any piece of her personal travel plans. The lack of reaction from Steele from being treated like this is further evidence that Fifty Shades, a wildly popular franchise in the 21st century, has more detrimental gender roles than a play published in 1611.