Reading 'Fifty Shades' series may be harmful for women`s health

A new study has revealed that the violence, which is normalized against women, in the popular fiction 'Fifty Shades' series might affect health of adolescent and young adult females readers.

Researchers from Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI), Group Health Research Institute (Seattle, WA), and Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) pointed to a substantially greater risk for certain adverse health behaviors among the group that read Fifty Shades, which hyper-sexualized women and might have reaffirmed and created the context for those behaviors.

Susan G. Kornstein, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's HealClearly, said that they needed a better understanding of the association between reading popular fiction that depicted violence towards women and engaging in risky health behaviors, particularly among adolescent and young adult women.

This study is published in Journal of Women's Health.