Are Romance Novels Hazardous To Your Health?

You knew your summer beach read wasn't exactly brain food, but could it actually be bad for your health?

In an essay published in the latest edition of the UK Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health, relationship psychologist Susan Quilliam ripped into the bodice-ripping genre, suggesting that it can encourage unsafe sex practices among readers. She writes:

To be blunt, we like condoms -- for protection and for contraception -- and they don't. In one recent survey, only 11.5% of romantic novels studied mentioned condom use, and within these scenarios the heroine typically rejected the idea because she wanted 'no barrier' between her and the hero.

She also points out that this same survey found a correlation between avid romance readers and a negative attitude toward condoms, and argues that the genre as a whole can create unrealistic expectations about romance, marriage and sexual pleasure.

Quilliam urges romance and non-romance readers to pay attention, as the genre could be providing a form of sex education:

In some Western countries, romance accounts for nearly half of all fiction bought; some fans read up to 30 titles a month, one book every two days. So while women's exposure to formal sex and relationships education (SRE) may be as little as a few hours in a lifetime, exposure to the brand of SRE offered in romantic novels may be as much as a day every week.

But that doesn't mean you have to give up on the Fabio fantasy just yet. According to an NPR blog, the data referenced in this piece is out-of-date, evaluating books that were published between 1981 and 1996 (meaning largely before there was a widespread understanding of AIDS and other STDs). On top of that, the sample size was a mere 78 books.

What do you think?

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Comments

[kayisdelirious]

04:07 PM on 08/11/2011

In modern every-day relationships, if you've survived long enough not to get conned into an arranged marriage or you suddenly had an attraction to a spy and you don't mind that he literally tears your expensive silk clothes apart and ripped open your corset, you should be smart enough to use a wrapper.
I love romance novels-- that doesn't mean I live in one.

[jf12]

11:03 AM on 07/09/2011

Not only nearly half of unit sales, they are by far the most repurposed, i.e. shared, used books, etc. What about germs? The occasionally replaced "Hydraulics Today" trade journals in the mens' bathroom have nothing on the well-thumbed (to use a phrase) bodice rippers of the women.

[Rosemary Breen]

06:38 PM on 07/08/2011

A lot of novel reading is for relaxation and escapism.

Like anything, the key is moderation!

[Dakotadem]

04:53 PM on 07/08/2011

The bigger danger is the number of brain cells that die when you read this trash.

[ChelleAgain]

02:35 AM on 07/09/2011

A fan, are you?

[VA Jill]

02:40 PM on 07/08/2011

Oh for pity's sake! These are FANTASIES. They are FICTION! This is one of the stupidest articles I've read in forever, and Ms. Quillliam needs to get a grip.

[Valerie Douglas]

09:28 AM on 07/08/2011

One other thought. What responsibility do writers have to readers? Should those who write serial killer novels point out that the consequences of murdering people is that you might get shot by the police? Should horror writers be constrained to point out that the boogeyman isn't real? No matter how many novels there are about cheating Congressmen getting caught, Congressmen still cheat, on their wives, on their taxes, etc. So how much reality does fiction need?

[Valerie Douglas]

09:10 AM on 07/08/2011

Please... Really? First it's FICTION. Second, the vast majority of women who read romance novels are more than old enough to know that condom use during unprotected sex in REAL LIFE is a good idea. The women who read these aren't stupid because... ahem... THEY READ. But romance novels are a fantasy and in fantasy there are no worries about STDs and AIDS. I do have to say that in several of my novels I do, in fact, have the couple use condoms - but not in all of them. That's because I credit my readers with sufficient intelligence to know the difference between what happens in a novel and what happens in real life. Unlike the writer.

[trumbull desi]

10:07 AM on 07/10/2011

Spot on Valerie. I just finished a really fine trashy novel. But also in my Kindle are a biography of Sarah Bernhardt, The Nine (about the Supreme Court), Lincoln on War, and Sense & Sensibility. Just because I like a good bodice ripper once in a while doesn't mean that I don't have a brain and don't know what safe sex is!

[iluvmaps]

07:28 AM on 07/08/2011

Hah, okay I definitely clicked on this article because I thought it was going to say library romance novels are physically dirty and hazardous to your health...Oops!

[Dana Winsley Greenwood]

03:01 AM on 07/08/2011

In most of the romances I've read recently, the hero does use a "French letter", so perhaps the genre is increasing it's level of responsibility since 1996. I think novels are like anything else in life - you get out of them what you put into them. I learned quite a lot about relationships and communication within a relationship (the hero and heroine are always getting into trouble over what was left unsaid) by reading romance novels.

JHKH: I think the relationship is more likely between those who judge people by their reading material and their level of insecurity...

[JHKH]

09:20 PM on 07/07/2011

I reckon there is a direct relationship between intelligence and the reading of romance novels, and the relationship is inverse -- the more romance novels you read, the less intelligent you must be.

[MissFrijole]

07:51 AM on 07/08/2011

So I guess if I read a Harry Potter book, I must have the mentality of a an adolescent? You have never read anything for the sake of reading it, even though you know it is dumb and contributes little to learning? I mean...you are on an online newspaper, for starters.

[JHKH]

02:22 PM on 07/09/2011

If your diet of literature consists solely of romance novels, then, yes, you are probably not too bright. An occasional guilty pleasure -- no problem. Two or more a week? You need to expand your horizons. And Harry Potter is not necessarily only for adolescents -- once again a wide variety of literature is a good thing.

[sangazure1]

11:34 AM on 07/08/2011

I take exception to that remark. I have enjoyed romance novels for many years. It's a form of escape from the pressures of my life. Some people like sitcoms -- I never watch them. Are "Sex and the City" or "The Kardashians," for example, of higher intellectual quality than romance novels?

And, for your information, I am a member of MENSA.

[trumbull desi]

10:03 AM on 07/10/2011

Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. Need I say more?

[Philip Schneider]

08:29 PM on 07/07/2011

I just had to click on this because I thought it was going to say reading was hazardous to your health. Its really surprising how women get "sucked" into these novels. Reading is a great way to escape real life, but some of these women must really have troubling love lives with their husbands if they go through a book every 2 days. Most likely if their men would pay attention to them more, they wouldn't feel the need to fill up the basement with romance novels.

[Shannon Whelan]

03:26 AM on 07/08/2011

Bit like men and porn really.

[MIMom]

06:47 AM on 07/08/2011

It's women's p0rn. Guys like the visual, women like things that appeal to their imaginations.

You are right, though, that men need to pay attention more.

[ChelleAgain]

02:53 AM on 07/09/2011

How do you explain sweet romances? The ones with no actual sex?

I do think that some subgenres exist for stimulation, and that words often work for women better than do visuals, but it's more complex than that. Romance novels also carry with them a guaranteed HEA -- Happily Ever After -- as opposed to just, um, a "happy ending."

I read romances on occasion. I'm also happily married in pretty much every single way possible -- and the exclusions are not about sex or attention. When I was dating him, I used to read him romance novels. He claimed to be interested in them, but was probably just interested in me. He remains interested. :)