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Listen, Parents: ’50 Shades of Grey’ is an Opportunity for Good Discussion 

February 19, 2015

fifty-shades-greyThe recently released film ’50 Shades of Gray’ is dominating the box office, but discussion around the storyline — including sex, abuse and relationships — is also filling the radio airwaves, morning talk shows and social media. Your kids are certainly hearing about it, which means it’s time for parents to decide how to react.

We encourage parents to not ignore these topics, but to start the discussion. And we like this new blog post from Prevent Child Abuse America‘s VP for Programs and Research, Dr. Janet Rosenzweig. Read the full article via Philly.com here. Here’s a sample of the great list of messages to address with older kids:

“Here’s a few topics from this movie that make a great discussion with any child, from around age 10 on:

  • In real life, it is never OK for an adult to seduce a child (Grey was introduced to sex by a friend of his mother)
  • In real life, it is never OK for people to hurt each other
  • In real life, girls want to have their own lives, their own opinions and don’t crave domination
  • In real life, if a man tells a woman (or a woman tells a man) he’s too damaged for a relationship, as Grey tells Anna early on, listen to him and run the other way.

With all of the hype about the books and movie, you may have read points like these, or thought about them yourself if you’ve read the books. As a sex educator, here’s the point I consider most important: This material was written to induce sexual arousal, and when it does, your child needs to understand that just because they experience reflexive arousal does not mean that this is the type of sex they want to have when they are mature enough to have sex.  It is a very common experience for humans to experience arousal from observing or reading about a sexual act they would never consider, and it takes honesty and maturity to understand that fact.”

> Read the full article via Philly.com here.

> Check out SCAN’s Parent Resource Center page on Sex & Violence in the Media here.

> Check out SCAN’s Parent Resource Center page (and fact sheets) on Sexting here.