In some ways, the film is an improvement over the books in that it removes the rape scenes, but in a way, those improvements make it all so much worse because the obviousness of the abuse has disappeared. He broke our engagement three months before the wedding his only explanation was that he couldn’t trust me to be “properly submissive.” I had been willful, defiant, had disobeyed him in recent months, and because of that he would not bestow upon me the title of “wife.” In the religious subculture we came from, I had committed a grave sin when I told him he couldn’t treat me badly anymore, and in the view of most of my friends and leaders, I deserved to get dumped. That gratitude propelled me into three years of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. I couldn’t believe that he wanted me-nerdy, dowdy, me. So, when in my junior year he began paying attention to me, I was more than flattered. I didn’t move in his celestial spheres I wasn’t worthy of his time or attention. But, I knew to my marrow that someone like me could never be with someone like him. Tall, dark, handsome, popular, talented, articulate, and immensely charming, I formed a crush on him almost instantly.
