Several times throughout our reading journey, we encountered people who assured us that the series got better in the third book. “Christian Grey changes,” they told us, and we’ve since seen that sentiment often echoed by fans of the books.
Well. In case it wasn’t abundantly clear during our seven month journey, the only way Grey really changes is that he gets worse. We’re pointing that out here in a more succinct way. It’s an asshole highlight reel, if you will. It’ll be a handy link for you to share anytime you hear or see anyone claiming that this is the man of their dreams. Seriously, share this, and ask them to pick a favorite moment.
Ready? In story order:
1. Ana went topless sun bathing against Grey’s will, and the fact that he commands her around and makes decisions about her body for her isn’t the worst part: to punish her for her actions,
Grey covered Ana in hickeys, successfully marking her body, marking his territory and ensuring that she’d want to wear a parka for the rest of their honeymoon in one fell swoop.
2. When Ana won’t change her name at work, Grey shows up in the middle of the day to threaten her with unwanted sex. So, like, basically
change your name or I’ll rape you.
3. Grey tells Ana she isn’t allowed out for a drink with Kate, but she goes anyways, which turns out to be a good thing because Jack Hyde broke into their apartment with a gun and duct tape. Grey doesn’t see it that way. He’s angry she went outside, blames her for Jack’s breaking and entering and ultimately Grey tells his wife he wants to
beat the shit out of her.
4. Grey does not in fact beat the excrement out of her, but he does take Ana into the Red Room (of Domestic Violence) to exact his revenge. Ana realizes that what he’s doing is not out of love or sexual gratification, so she uses the safeword, and Grey has the audacity to
turn using the safeword into a bad thing.
5. Grey decides that he’d like if his perpetual victim would resist a little more in bed. He shares his rape fantasy with Ana, and she decides that non-consent sounds totally hot. Except, at some point during this little roleplay, she “stops acting,” and doesn’t in fact want her husband pinning her down and wrestling her.
Not that he stops, or anything.
6. Without her knowledge,
Grey drafted up a list of proscribed visitors— that is, people who were kept away from her and she wasn’t allowed to see. Think about it. Grey made up this entire list of people Ana isn’t allowed to come in contact with, and enforces it by keeping a security guard with her at all times.
7.
Grey’s entire reaction to Ana’s unplanned pregnancy was terrible, from the yelling, the physical intimidation, the blame, and the fact that he goes running to the woman who statutory raped him was the tremendodouche icing on the asshole cake. To make matters worse, when Ana tries to ignore Grey, he tries to push sex on her. She says she’ll scream and his response is, “
no one will hear you.”
