Note: This plot was movie critic MaryAnn Johanson's idea: she graciously agreed to let me use it. Thanks, MaryAnn! All due credit to you, and to E.L. James of course. By the way, the title here is a play on Sleeping with the Enemy, another movie about an abusive relationship.
I DO NOT have the time to explain the abuse in Fifty Shades of Grey. Suggest you Google Pervocracy Fifty Shades of Grey for a BDSM-accepting explanation.
Sleeping Without the Enemy
Anastasia Grey, book editor, read the manuscript for She Called It Love with tears of sadness streaming down her face.
A month later, Anastasia Steele, waitress (fortunately Christian had no contacts in the restaurant industry) fetched scrambled eggs for screaming customers and applesauce for their equally screaming babies, pausing occasionally to wipe the tears of joy from her face.
It hadn't been easy, escaping his "protection." But in the end Anastasia had become the proud owner of a restraining order which, unlike Christian's absurd BDSM contract, actually was legally enforceable. After that, obtaining a divorce and custody of the children, while still difficult and often bewildering, seemed more each day like something she had the power to do, and less a distant dream. The name change, while not yet legally binding, had been accepted by her friends and family once they came to see, as she had, how wrong her life as Anastasia Grey had been.
The money was still a problem. Naturally he was playing hardball with it in the divorce, and considering her career had been largely due to his influence, she had been unable to get a job in the publishing industry. Still, she began to think she did have something that industry might be interested in. A month to the day of her escape, she began to write.
Two years later, Anastasia Steele dropped off Phoebe Steele and Theodore Steele at daycare and stepped, quite literally, into the limelight. Not expecting her tell-all about her relationship to become a bestseller – for who could have predicted the beginning of the #MeToo/#TimesUp movement? – she had been pleasantly astonished by the money and simply astonished by the media requests. At length she agreed to them. After all, if she could persuade one young person that abuse was not something to be endured in the name of love, would not her embarrassment and awkwardness be more than worth it?
She stepped to the microphone. "Although I have always loved literature, there were some important words I failed to understand the true meaning of until recently. Like love. I thought it meant someone to take care of me, to make sure I ate, to follow me - and hire detectives to follow me - and control me for my own good, so that no harm would come to me. I thought it was romantic when Christian was possessive, that it was due to his love he bought an entire company I worked for so that he could watch over me. I thought it must be love when he broke into my bank account to give me money, when he changed my plane ticket to one he thought was better, and so on. I should have realized what love really is. Love is when you trust someone and let them live their own life. And when you have feelings of jealousy or worry, you talk about them, you work through them or break up. You don't use them as an excuse to try to deny your partner basic rights like where they can go, who they can speak to, control of their own money. And remember, if someone can give you money and a career without your permission or involvement, they can take them away also."
She brushed her hair behind her ears. "Another word – well, collection of words – I failed to understand was the acronym BDSM. Though frankly, I think Christian failed to understand them as well, or at least acted as if he did. BDSM relationships, like all relationships, are not inherently free of abuse, but the meaning of BDSM is not 'the dom dishes out abuse, the sub takes it.' BDSM is about someone agreeing to be dominated, physically hurt, and/or tied up because they like it as much as the dom. Not the sub grimly enduring it for the sake of a relationship. Not them being subjected to it for failing to obey orders – well, for pretend perhaps. But if you literally find yourself having to obey your partner's orders, against your own wishes, or else get spanked or beaten, etc., don't let them tell you that's sexy BDSM fun that vanilla people just don't understand. Don't let them tell you that rape is a suitable punishment for not obeying their whims. Don't let them say "I'm going to fuck you" as if it were a punishment you had no say in.
The last word I want to speak to you about today is honor. Some have pointed out – and rightly so – that just as I said I loved Christian, I called him a man of honor. I thought he was because he earned his own money and overcame - at least to the extent of achieving career success - a troubled childhood. I can see now that monetary success means much less than treating people decently, which means respecting their wishes, not showering them with expensive presents to make up for poor treatment.
Others have noted that Christian was himself the victim of statutory rape, and child abuse and neglect. I acknowledge that and deplore it. I hope he gets therapy. But it is no excuse for his own abuse of me."
She paused to bite her lip - one thing she had never managed to break free of. "Some have claimed I only wrote about Christian for the money. I think I've more than earned it, and whether or not a person earns a great deal of money for their literary endeavors has nothing to do with whether they are true or worth reading. But I do think I ought to put the money to good use. So I hope you will all be glad to join me for the opening of the Steele Women's Shelter next week."
Though the applause that followed would echo in her ears for days, it did not prevent her from drifting off that night. Though her wealth would never reach the heights she had enjoyed as Mrs. Grey, she had never slept in a better bed.