Fifty Shades of Grey: Young Women, Relationships, and Popular Culture

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.

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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.

 

http://www.bphc.org/whatwedo/violence-prevention/start-strong/Documents/Start%20Strong%20Sound%20Relationships.pdf 

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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Should Pregnant Women Take Probiotics to Prevent Preterm Birth?

Recently, an article in JAMA about a potential relationship between the vaginal microbiome and preterm birth caught my attention.  According to the CDC, the statistics about preterm birth in the US are not good-  one in nine infants born in 2012 was premature. 

Factors associated with preterm birth include Black race, low socioeconomic status, urinary or vaginal infection, prior preterm birth, carrying more than 1 baby, high blood pressure, tobacco and alcohol use, and substance abuse.  But could the microbial environment of the vagina be a contributing factor?  The relationship between various human microbiomes and health or disease is a hottopic these days!

 A study of 49 women at Stanford University found that almost 2/3 of vaginal samples from women who delivered prematurely were Lactobacillus-poor.  Of women who carried to term, ¾ had Lactobacillus- dominant vaginal flora.  Although these findings contradict an earlier study, there were differences in study populations and definitions.  For example, the earlier study enrolled mainly African American women (known to have more diverse vaginal flora) and defined prematurity as birth prior to 34 weeks of gestation whereas the Stanford study evaluated primary white women and defined prematurity as birth occurring before 37 weeks. 

Clearly, more studies are needed to determine if a woman’s vaginal microbiome during pregnancy plays a significant role in preterm birth and whether there are any interactions between the microbiome and other factors such as obesity, inflammation and host genetics before recommending probiotics. 

                                                                                                                                       Judith Wolf,  MD                                                                                                                          Associate Director, WHEP

For more information:

Jacob JA.  Another Frontier in Microbiome Research: Preterm Birth.  JAMA 2015; 314:1550-1551.     DiGiulio DB et al.  Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2015; 112:11060-11065    Romero R et al.  Microbiome 2014; 2:18    Fettweis JM et al.  Microbiology 2014; 160:2272-2282.

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