A moment ago, I had a horrible epiphany.
The titular character of the 50 Shades of Grey series is a billionaire obsessed with ending world hunger.
In the time it’s going to take you to read this sentence, someone will probably have died from starvation.
50 Shades has sold 40,000,000 copies, by the most recent estimation I’ve been able to find. The paperbacks are like $15 bucks a piece, so doesn’t that make it something like $600,000,000.00 that we’ve spent on these books?
This is not a condemnation by the way, I’m not some raving socialist or someone who’se like, “I do nothing, yet I think you should do x,” Do whatever you want with your money and for fuck’s sake don’t quit buying books. I’m just saying…
Our fellow human beings are starving to death, we’re completely aware of this fact, and we’ve chosen, collectively (hell, I even bought them), to spend $600,000,000.00 on books about a guy who is fictionally curing hunger.
If someone wrote a book about that? No one would ever buy it, it would be too unbelievable. How bleak and funny and tragically human is that?
So well said Jenny.
He’s meant to be this great philanthropist, and this is a factor in women getting off on him… but there is a tragic irony that this franchise has made more money than the GDP of some of the poorest countries (which of course have had their assets removed, and food stolen through centuries of colonialism and neo-colonialism).
If just $1 per book/merch sale/film ticket was given to actually helping the world be better… I saw the film, and I actually wouldn’t have minded paying £1 extra so that it would go to some organisation doing amazing work.
(actually, I wouldn’t mind if all places I purchased random things from would do that, amazon, starbucks, etc)