A new study claims that reading the erotic romance novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” could be hazardous to young women’s health.
The study, published in the “Journal of Women’s Health,” says in an abstract: “No prior study has empirically characterized the association between health risks and reading popular fiction depicting violence against women. Fifty Shades—a blockbuster fiction series—depicts pervasive violence against women, perpetuating a broader social narrative that normalizes these types of risks and behaviors in women’s lives.”
It adds: “The present study characterized the association between health risks in women who read and did not read Fifty Shades; while our cross-sectional study design precluded causal determinations, an empirical representation of the health risks in women consuming the problematic messages in Fifty Shades is made.”
The authors of the study found that females between the ages of 18 and 24 enrolled in a Midwestern university did an online survey about their health behaviors. Of them, 219 read the first novel in the “Fifty Shades” series at least, while the others didn’t read any part.
It concluded that “in age- and race-adjusted models, compared with nonreaders, females who read at least the first novel were more likely than nonreaders to have had, during their lifetime, a partner who shouted, yelled, or swore at them and who delivered unwanted calls/text messages; they were also more likely to report fasting and using diet aids at some point during their lifetime.
“Compared with nonreaders, females who read all three novels were more likely to report binge drinking in the last month and to report using diet aids and having five or more intercourse partners during their lifetime.”
