Dakota Johnson and Mum Melanie Griffiths

Saw a snippet from the red carpet on the Oscars where Dakota Johnson (star of 50 Shades) and her mother Melanie Griffith had a rather uncomfortable moment when Melanie expressed no desire to ever see her daughter in the film due to the nature of it. I found it kind of odd coming from Melanie when one of the first things I remember seeing her in was Brian DePalma's Body Double where she played a porn star with the name of Holly Body and she did a very sexy full body striptease in that. Of course seeing a public mother/daughter spat like that made me immediately think of spanking, as well.

I saw that too, and I wouldn't call it a spat. I think that Melanie is just thinking like a mom.

Wasn't the story 'twist' in "Body Double," as suggested by the film's title, that Melanie Griffith's character hadn't actually done that tantalizingly sensual stripping herself? In which case, I suppose she could argue that the character was somewhat more 'pure'--or less exhibitionistic anyway--than she first appeared to be?

Another possible interpretation could be that Ms. Griffith is more tolerant of 'vanilla' sexuality than its kinky counterpart, which would be an unfortunate attitude.

Over a quarter-century ago, the movie "Exit to Eden" came out--it got away with portraying a bit of kinky eroticism via playing it primarily for laughs, although the portrayal wasn't lacking in positivity in some aspects.

Anyway, it did feature two brief demonstrations of female-spanks-male interaction--a flashback at the very beginning with a boy provoking his family's maid to spank him over his undershorts, then later the same character as a young man being sensuously spanked (although only a couple of swats were directly shown) by the mistress/owner of the kink-based resort.

In spite of its often insipid silliness and some misrepresentation of the spanking kink (notably the suggestion that the mistress developed her 'toppish' spankophile desires due to her father's emotional coolness), I eventually purchased the DVD of "Exit to Eden," because it is a mainstream motion picture (albeit not nearly as highly publicized as "Fifty Shades of Grey") which features a couple of short spanking scenes which I can relate to.

Thus I can understand why 'bottomish' female spankophiles would find "Fifty Shades of Grey" quite appealing in its popularization of their own feelings, even given the film's reportedly questionable portrayal of a Dominant/submissive romantic relationship.

It's certainly interesting to read/hear about feminine reactions to both the novel(s) and motion picture, especially those of seemingly 'vanilla' women... --C.K.

Exit to Eden was an Anne Rice, wasn't it? I've never read it, but I've seen enough of her Beauty series to suggest that the book may have been heavier on the BDSM scenes than the film was. I remember reading an interview with Dana Delaney about that film and as research for the role she actually accompanied a dominatrix on a few house calls and she also hinted that she'd been permitted to spank one client.
Melanie and Dakota may not have been fighting as such, but they were clearly uncomfortable discussing the film, and I think Dakota seemed more than a little hurt that her mother held that opinion and didn't want to see the film. I immediately flashed on Holly Body stating the terms of her employment in Body Double: 'I don't do animal acts or dead people, and I will absolutely positively not have anyone cum in my mouth!' It made me wonder if Dakota had ever seen the film.

And now the bloke who played Christian Grey is being told by his wife not to take part in the other two films in the 50 Shades trilogy - why couldn't they have got actors to play these roles who actually enjoyed and understood a BDSM relationship?

Kind of hard when everything I've heard about the book kind of suggests that the author herself didn't really understand a BDSM relationship. The whole thing started life as a Twilight fanfic.

I saw the awkward mother daughter moment and honestly I think her mom would like to take her over her knee and spank her good. I shared my thoughts with my wife and she agreed. Not as much for the movie content, but embarrassing her in public.

Maybe, just maybe, the mum does not like the movie because it strikes too close to home and she wonders if her daughter is not developing the same kinks?

Seegee, you are right about the book, Exit to Eden. The main character, Elliott, is into BDSM, in the book version. In the movie, he has a spanking fetish. Elliott gets two spankings in the movie. Once when he is a boy, the family maid pulls down his pants and spanks him with her hand on his underwear. As an adult, he is given a bare bottom spanking with a hairbrush by Lisa, played by Dana Delaney. In the book, Lisa uses a strap on his bare bottom (and also his back, if memory serves correctly.) Anne Rice also wrote a scene where Elliott is spanked with a paddle, but this did not appear in the final version of the book.

Anne Rice really seemed to like paddles if their use in Beauty is anything to go by. The movie caused some interest down here because it starred local boy Paul Mercurio as Elliott. If the spanking from the au pair in the book is anything like the one in the movie, or if it's there at all, you can totally understand where the fetish came from.