First of all I am a HUGE James Spader fan and always have been since he was in 16 Candles and I continue to be with watching him in The Blacklist. The movie Secretary is one of my all time favorite movies and I could watch it over and over again. With all due respect to Doc, have I ever given thoughts to being spanked by James Spader? Hell yes I have, lol.
Now on to the topic at hand, "has the movie 50 Shades had any effect on me?" I can honestly say yes it has, and in a good way.
Maybe I am a person who sees the cup as half full, but I think the movies have done a lot in a positive manner for our community. I understand that not all BDSM relationships are as hard core as parts of these movies they can be and that is okay. That is the beauty of BDSM, it can be as soft to as hard as the participants have agreed on, and or implied. For some BDSM means pink fuzzy plastic handcuffs, but for others it means hanging from huge meat hooks and being beaten with bull whips until blood is drawn. To each their own, that's the beauty of BDSM.
The reason some of the BDSM groups denounced the movies is because they didn't want everyone who is vanilla but intrigued by something other than vanilla to be afraid and think that all BDSM was this extreme or always had to be. We know better, the vanillas don't.
I will say this, I have friends who are members/part owners of a well known dungeon in NY and they said that these movies did a lot for their business. These movies brought lots of the vanillas in the door looking to see what this new world is all about. That's huge!
I have said this before and I will say it again and again if I have to. Take a look at our history. 70 years ago blacks were still being made to sit on the back of our buses and were segregated. About 20 years ago we saw Ellen kiss another woman on prime time TV for the first time. The country was in shock. Her show got cancelled almost immediately. But after everyone settles down and gets used to the ideas of blacks being equal to whites, gays and lesbians being allowed to be who they are, the initial shocks disappear. My kids can't imagine a world where blacks are viewed differently than whites, or that it isn't okay to come out, that both things in their own times would have gotten them killed.
It's called desensitizing. After a bit people get used to seeing things and they get comfortable with some of the things that didn't seem natural to them a few years earlier. Now because of desensitizing blacks in this country are equal, gay men can walk down streets and not get shot, they can get married. Wouldn't it be nice some day for all of us to be as accepted? Not have to hide like most people here do? I personally don't, but I am who I am and don't really care what other think or say, but do you? Wouldn't it be nice not to have to hide anymore?
Mashie