Fifty Shades of Grey

A fairly interesting study was done in relation to the popular novel, Fifty Shades of Grey, recently. If anyone hasn’t heard of the book, this is the first book of the trilogy series by E. L. James and has sold over 100 million copies since the released in 2012. It is an extremely graphic and racy. I have read the books myself and I hope that those of you who read the book will share your input because this study seems off to me.

A study done through Michigan State University showed that those who read the series are at an increased risk for the following: eating disorders, abusive relationships, binge drinking, and sleeping around. Here are the official numbers, “Compared to participants who didn’t read the book, those who read the first “Fifty Shades” novel were 25 percent more likely to have a partner who yelled or swore at them; 34 percent more likely to have a partner who demonstrated stalking tendencies; and more than 75 percent 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 than nonreaders to binge drink — or drink five or more drinks on a single occasion on six or more days per month — and 63 percent more likely to have five or more intercourse partners during their lifetime” (Michigan).

The flaw in this study was that the questions did not ask when they experienced eating disorders, relationship abuse, sleeping around and binge drinking. That makes a huge difference. I’m sure that most of the people who participated in the study experienced those situations before reading, while some likely occurred after, but not because of the book. The book does not promote relationship abuse and eating disorders so they believe that the book is the cause of the study participants experiencing those situations is a little hard to believe.

Because the study did not ask when the participants took part in certain behaviors, this study is completely skewed. Some of my friends read the book because they experiences similar life situations and I think that that is part of the reason why their data included such high percentages. People like to read things they identify with and not asking about the timing of events in the participants’ life, the study should not blame the book for such awful behavior and situations.

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Michigan State University. “Reading ‘Fifty Shades’ linked to unhealthy behaviors.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 August 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140821115922.htm>.

3 thoughts on “Fifty Shades of Grey

  1. Katherine Jane Ballantyne

    I actually read this same article for my freshmen seminar: Sex, Love, & Romance in the Media. When I read the studies, my thought was that the demographic reading this book would be more likely to partake in these actions. Of course, I haven’t read any surveys on the type of people who have read this book, (however I do know it’s a lot of older women and younger women alike). I think that women in their 50’s who have been read this book and partaken in the survey have had long lives and have been able to experience a wide range of relationships like abusive ones or eating disorders or more than 5 partners. I also think that the young women that have read the books are less likely to be the conservative, church-going types, so they’re also more likely to have done the things found in the studies. Just my thoughts!

  2. Jenna Rae Stoklosa

    I have read the first two books, and I don’t think the books are the causes of these disorders, and behaviors. I also agree with you on that it is probably an outside factor. Millions of people read these books and they all have different life experiences. If you look hard enough you are bound to find a correlation between this book and something else. There was no binge drinking in the book, no eating disorders in the book, and I wouldn’t say the main character was “sleeping around” because she was a virgin before she met Christian Grey. The accusation that this books may be causing an increase in these events doesn’t make sense because they aren’t taking place in the book. As for the abusive relationship aspect, the relationship is messed up between the two of them but a big part of that is because of the whole kinky, dominance thing that they have going on. But I don’t think that this is causing women to look for relationships in which the guy swears at them and abuses them. If anything I think that the book attracted the attention of women who may have been in those types of relationships in the past and that is why the statistics are higher. I personally thing that the correlation between the book and behaviors said above is not looked at fully and fairly.

  3. Natalie Michelle Soltero Cabrera

    I’ve read the book twice and I don’t have eating disorders, I’m not sleeping around, I don’t have a stalker or a partners that stalks me. I completely agree with you maybe the book isn’t the problem, maybe another factor is, like you said maybe some people are reading it because they have experienced similar situations in their lives. I don’t think the only reason is the book, I also think that maybe they are not asking the right questions in the surveys or studies that they are doing.

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