The popularity of "Fifty Shades of Grey" proves the original goal of the women's liberation movement has morphed into white suburban women who want to be sexually dominated by men, says Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
And Donohue delivered a stern warning to those who enjoy such unorthodox sexual practices as bondage, domination and sadism — saying they can easily run the risk of sustaining life-threatening injuries.
"The attraction is … with white suburban women," Donohue said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"A lot of men are out there and they want to be become the slave masters of these women."
Donohue's controversial take comes as a movie version of "Fifty Shades of Grey," the wildly popular erotic novel by E.L. James, debut in theaters this Thursday.
The film, about the kinky sex life of college graduate Anastasia Steele and business tycoon Christian Grey, has been hit with an R rating for strong sexual content, graphic nudity and "some unusual behavior," and is expected to be a big Valentine's Day date movie.
"The fact that this [book] outsells Harry Potter tells me we're not talking about a fringe audience here," Donohue said.
"[Feminist Betty] Friedan and others talked about male's domination of the female, but now they want to be sexually dominated and in other ways dominated."
Donohue believes one of the goals of "Fifty Shades of Grey" is to "normalize kinky."
"They want to take the kink out of kinky. Why there are so many millions of white suburban mothers in their 30s and 40s who want to be dominated by men is [an] interesting thing," he said.
"Friedan wrote 'The Feminist Mystique' [and] … talked about the 'comfortable concentration camp,' where she meant that white suburban women were born living a sterile life and she said they need to be liberated."
The women's liberation movement, most active in the 1960s and 1970s, aimed to free women from oppression and male domination.
"Fast forward to 2015, the idea of women's liberation seems to have taken a different tact," Donohue said.
"Fifty Shades" — which has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 52 languages — glorifies bondage, whipping and other wild bedroom antics.
Donohue said the movie portrays domination of men over women, who "want to submit" to them. But, he added, such behavior is nothing to engage in lightly.
"People have to be careful, and I mean this in all seriousness, [about] this BDSM — this bondage, submission, sadism and masochism … particularly looking at what goes on in the ER departments," Donohue said.
"What they find [inside people] … is rather startling — and glass, they say, has become very popular … It's amazing the number of people doing severe damage to themselves."
Donohue said as far as he's concerned, the book and movie should be retitled "50 Shades of Slavery."
"After I read what they're doing to themselves, I don't need to know any more!" he said.
Even though it has yet to be released, the movie version has been slammed by Morality in Media, a non-profit that opposes pornography, violence against women, and similar practices on TV and in movies.
The MPAA warns moviegoers that the film's R rating includes "some unusual behavior."
"What the term 'unusual' does not account for is the coercion, sexual violence, female inequality, and BDSM themes from which the entire 'Fifty Shades' plot is based," Morality in Media said in a statement.
"Such a vague evaluation puts viewers at risk, sending the message that humiliation is pleasurable and that torture should be sexually gratifying."
The group goes on to say the filmmakers' use of the term "fairy tale" in the movie's trailer is misleading, masking "the true themes of humiliation, manipulation, abuse, and degradation of women.
"Sexual violence and sexual exploitation are at an all-time high, permeating our culture by way of hardcore pornography and now praised by films like 'Fifty Shades of Grey.' "
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