Maybe this is one of the main subjects of many conversations lately: Fifty Shades of Grey. The erotic romance novel about a young student Ana Steele and business man Christian Grey. There are three volumes and it has sold over 100 million copies worldwide. These books are very popular, especially by women, so I think I can assume that nobody who is readying this article missed the news that there is a movie coming out really soon! It’s scheduled to be released at February 13. (In case you didn’t know :))
Shifting Identities
This trilogy inspired me to write this article, since I’m trying to write articles regarding to the term ‘shifting identities’. For the ones who do not know what it is: Basically shifting identities means the different roles one person can take in multiple social groups. For example: I’m a student, but also a daughter of my parents and the little sister of my sibling, but I’m also a colleague since I’m working as a bartender at a cocktail bar. When we look further, shifting identities can also mean that one person can be the total opposite of what he or she looks like or what he or she does. That’s why I think Fifty Shades of Grey is a great example to learn you more about shifting identities. Actually, Christian Grey is the perfect example of this.
Christian Grey’s shift
For the ones who did not read these books, let me give you a short and plain explanation about who Christian Grey exactly is. Christian Trevelyan Grey is a young, handsome, charming business man. At the first sight he looks very normal and busy with his company, but he has some kind of ”dark side” too: he practices BDSM, which stands for Bondage, Discipline, Dominance, Submission, Sadism and Masochism. You can call this a shift in an identity: He appears to be a ‘normal’ person, but secretly he practices BDSM.
BDSM
Simply said: BDSM is having sex which involves dominance, submission and role-plays. For some this is a one-time experiment but for others this is really a lifestyle. BDSM includes many activities and interpersonal relationships, and it is very often that participants have some kind of ‘role’ in the ‘play’, in which both are unequal. There’s one who is the dominant person and one who has the passive obedient role.
Why is it cool?
I think these novels were great to read. Fifty Shades of Grey is a perfect example of what shifting identities is exactly. It creates awareness and it shows that you don’t have to act according the way you look like. I dress very decent and properly, some of my friends say that I have ‘the Zara look’, but despite that I like to go to salsa bars and I love to listen and dance on latin music and reggaeton. I was very glad that they made a movie of this book because I think it is easier to reach more people with a movie than with a book, since not everybody likes to read. This movie hopefully learns people about BDSM and that it isn’t that weird as many people say. This movie tells us that you really shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover and that a human being is so much more than what they look like.
Sources:
D.N.D. Stukadoors en Afbouwbedrijf 