We are all surrounded and influenced by social media, film, music and music videos. But few
of us stop to think about how portrayal of “traditional”
gender roles (the strong, powerful man and weak, submissive woman) affect relationships. More specifically, what impact do sexual
stereotypes, hypersexualized images, violence, stalking, and manipulation have on attitudes and behaviors?
Interestingly, a recent study published in the Journal of Women’s Health
titled “Young Women’s Perceptions of the Relationship in Fifty Shades of Grey,”
used focus groups consisting of 18-24 year old women to evaluate young women’s
perceptions of the relationship in the film.
What they found was that young women were at the same time fascinated and
repulsed.
Here are some excerpts from the study:
“While participants assessed parts of the relationship
between Christian and Anastasia as exciting and romantic, they consistently
indicated an unappealing lack of health in the relationship as the overarching
narrative. Participants identified Christian's controlling, manipulative, and
abusive behavior and angry emotions as key contributors to the lack of
relationship health, including stalking Anastasia, selling her car without her
permission, taking her to a hotel while she was intoxicated and unconscious
even though they had little relationship together, buying her expensive gifts
to control and manipulate her, and expressing anger in their sexual
interactions.”
“At the same time, participants were sympathetic and
rationalized Christian's behaviors. … While participants identified Christian's
control/manipulation, stalking, emotional abuse, anger, and neglect of
Anastasia's needs, they were sympathetic and rationalized these behaviors as a
function of his personality, needs, and ability to wield power in the
relationship due to his affluence.”
Because of the “sexual abuse he experienced in adolescence”,
he “isn't able to have meaningful relationships because he doesn't know how”.
Some study participants blamed Anastasia
for not standing up for herself and effectively negotiating her needs: “You have a voice, you can control it, he
told you he is going to do it so if you don't say anything he is going to
assume that you are okay … she has to figure out how to
communicate … you have your own voice … they have a saying in society, ‘If you're timid, work on that.’”
However, the majority of focus group participants
acknowledged the challenges of “speaking up” in a relationship like Christian
and Anastasia's.
********
It’s important for all of us to become more “media
literate” – to be able to analyze and critique the content, stereotypes, and
messages in advertisements, music lyrics, movies, and videos. Moreover, as the authors point out, gender-based violence prevention
programs, especially those that target young men, should encourage discussions about
the depictions of violence against women, gender and sexual messages, and stereotypes
in the popular media. Lastly, patient
education materials about being smart consumers of media (check out the example
"nutritional impact" below) should be available to adolescent and young adult patients. These efforts can all contribute to
prevention of violence against women.
J Women’s Health. “Young Women’s
Perceptions of the Relationship in Fifty Shades of Grey”
Amy E. Bonomi, PhD, MPH, Emily M. Nichols, MSW, Christin L. Carotta,
PhD,
Yuya Kiuchi, PhD, and Samantha Perry.
2015; Volume 24. Available on line.
Judith Wolf, MD
Associate Director, WHEP
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