Freedom of Speech and Food For Thought

So with the release of the movie 50 Shades of Grey this weekend I've seen a few odd discussions... I've seen some HYSTERICAL critiques. This one from an Australian TV personality was brilliant.



And nobody disses the right to review something, but...



There have also been some content discussions, and THERE people get touchier. If you veer away from the “poorly acted” or “not sexy” critiques and get into the actual way BDSM is displayed, or a debate as to whether this is “romance” (or erotica)... well people can get touchy.







...Missing the point, in my opinion...

Among the discussions I've seen a lot of “Free Speech Card” calling... “Who are you to criticize? People can watch what they want and create what they want!”





And they are right. I place Free Speech very high on the list of things I value. The free flow of information is critical to a non-totalitarian society.



And everybody has the right to produce whatever they like (provided nobody gets hurt) and consumers have a right to watch, read or enjoy whatever they like.





But you know what? People are ALSO entitled to have discussions about the things put out there into the common space. Once something is put out there, it is not protected from criticism. Saying "BDSM doesn't work this way" is NOT saying "I want to censor this". It is saying “I'd like to clarify that the author didn't know what she was talking about” (which according to people far more into BDSM than I am, is the case).



In particular there was a discussion about distinguishing BDSM and abuse... Here is a post showing where 50 Shades is on the wrong side of this.





But my REAL point is just to point out that criticizing something doesn't mean an attempt to ban it. It means that a discussion and dialog is merited and whoever has posted the criticism is just trying to get the discussion going. So I hope all you fabulous people can go forward on ANY topic and consider it in that light. We will all be better off if we can talk about stuff and learn from each other.