Fifty Shades of Grey is one of the most popular erotic novel series of our time. The series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide. This Valentine’s Day the anticipated movie is set to hit theaters. This erotic novel is characterized within the romantic and erotic bondage-discipline-sadism-masochism fiction category. The novel follows an erotic and romantic relationship between Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.
Fifty Shades of Grey has drawn lots of attention for its content. Such that there was a recent study published by the Journal of Women’s Health. This is the first study ever conducted and published of its kind. The study characterized the association between health risks in young adult women and the reading of this popular fiction book as depicting violence against women. The study suggests, a link between reading the books and behaviors in woman such as likely disordered eating, binge drinking and being a part of abusive relationships.
The study is based on a survey of young females between the ages of 18 to 24 that was done at Ohio State University. The study surveyed 655 young adult females and found that young women who had read the novels were 25% more likely to be in verbally/emotionally abusive relationships and 34% more likely to have had partners who exhibited stalker tendencies. And more than 75% were more likely to have used diet aids or fasted for more than 24 hours. Those who read all three books in the series were 65 percent more likely to binge drink five or more drinks on a single occasion, on six or more days per month. In addition, 63% were more likely to have five or more intercourse partners during their lifetime.
Now given that this study was a cross-sectional study it is hard to make assumptions or correlations from the data provided it would be interesting to see how following up on similar topics will correlate with future health risks.