Women who read Fifty Shades of Grey are more likely to display sexist attitudes

Young women who have read EL James’s erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey are more likely to display sexist attitudes, according to new research, Guardian UK reported.

Academics at Ohio State and Michigan State Universities have now examined the association between reading EL James's Fifty Shades of Grey and holding sexist beliefs.

They find in their new paper Sexist Attitudes Among Emerging Adult Women Readers of Fifty Shades Fiction that women who had read the book had higher levels of “ambivalent, benevolent, and hostile sexism”.

Benevolent sexism is defined as the belief that women should be cherished and protected by men, while hostile sexism is the negative and objectifying view.

The researchers, led by Lauren Altenburger, said "the relationship between Anastasia and Christian coheres closely with notions of benevolent sexism, it stands to reason that those who find Fifty Shades romantic would also hold benevolent sexism beliefs,” they write in their paper, which has been published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour journal.

“The juxtaposed relation between Christian and Anastasia takes the form of a violent hierarchy, making Anastasia appear inferior to Christian – she is depicted as weaker, less assertive, more emotional, and less intelligent. Furthermore, the power imbalance [between them] takes the form of emotional abuse (Christian intimidates, threatens, stalks, humiliates, and socially isolates Anastasia) and sexual violence (Christian uses intimidation and alcohol to impair Anastasia’s consent),” they write.

Readers around the world have bought more than 100m copies of James’s trilogy, which follows the increasingly dark relationship between billionaire businessman Christian and shy student Anastasia, from his laying out of a contract detailing the sadomasochistic nature of their relationship, to a descent into his dark past.

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