Romance Novels And Women's Health: A Dose Of Skepticism

npr.org:

The Los Angeles Times is the latest to pick up an essay written by British psychologist, advice columnist and relationship guru Susan Quilliam. In the essay, Quilliam discusses a bunch of research, some of which indicates that reading romance novels is correlated with happy relationships, and then heartily editorializes that she nevertheless still suspects that secretly, they are bad for healthy relationships. (Interestingly, the L.A. Times correctly classifies the piece as an "essay," while the Guardian classifies it as a "report.")

Read the whole story: npr.org

Comments

[dahpunkster]

04:52 PM on 07/17/2011

( sarcastic jest ) Reading is bad for me now? Wow! I thought it was an escape from problems in my life and way for me to learn and grow as a person. But you know if its on the internet , It must be true.

[elamatt]

07:30 PM on 07/09/2011

Another danger exists, in addition to the "real" health danger of lack of birth control, is the damage to one's grey matter. The "page 17, seduction and parting", followed by 200 pages of longing, mistaken identities and other silliness, until the final "release" 100 pages later is enough to kill what brain cells I have left!!

[MochaLite]

05:39 PM on 07/08/2011

What is this ... Susan Quilliam day at HP? You have another dose of her anti-romance-novel attitude further up the page.

[MikeDu]

02:50 PM on 07/08/2011

Forgive my ignorance on the subject, but do 'romance novels' typically go into the sort of hands-on gynecological detail where mention of condoms would come up? One suppose people drive around in cars too, but there would be scant reference to getting regular oil changes, And they have meals without mentioning the safest internal temperature of a roast chicken.

[elamatt]

07:32 PM on 07/09/2011

Mike Du, you are correct in your supposition about "details", and furthermore lucky to never have read such drivel.

[arkymorgan]

02:10 PM on 07/08/2011

If people are convinced that violent videogames don't influence behavior, why would they seize on romance novels as pernicious?

It's inherently ridiculous to believe that an Xbox audience can draw the lines between 'pretend' violence and criminality, but that a reader will unavoidably model themselves on any fictional rendition they comes across.

In my personal experience, readers of romance novels are readers, first and foremost, and that they tend to read a lot of other stuff besides. I am not as clear on the Xbox crowd: the people I do know who are into video/computer games seem not to do much else in their spare time.

But I would hesitate to write anything even quasi-academic suggesting that anything I have surmised from anecdotal evidence combined with personal beliefs would constitute some form of scientific analysis.

No, scratch that. I wouldn't just hesitate. I just wouldn't do it, because I was taught not to theorize before my data.

[ValdaDeDieu]

01:34 PM on 07/08/2011

Absolutely NOT! Romance in literature is an art. The best of that genre is exemplary writing. Many of the superb Romance fiction authors (Linda Howard, Jayne Ann Krentz, for example) are better writers than the male writers getting recognition by the literary establishment.

One elderly Jewish lady once told me that reading romance fiction saved her life after being married to an abuser--it gave her optimism and the strength to survive him!

[elamatt]

07:35 PM on 07/09/2011

True literature, great fictional murder mysteries and great non-fiction are all more valuable in my "book". But, correct you are; reading is vital.

[dahpunkster]

04:56 PM on 07/17/2011

feel that way about dark comedy and historical fiction and generally weird, inspirational books.

[ValdaDeDieu]

04:55 PM on 07/18/2011

True. Black comedy has a lightening effect on the mood...Check this out:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005AIP7EQ

I don't know if the theme to this dark comedy is your thing, but I wrote it.

[gfs5541]

01:19 PM on 07/08/2011

I don't know it there are, but what's up with the picture of condoms?

[MochaLite]

05:40 PM on 07/08/2011

Wow, I thought they were the little artificial sweetener packets you get in restaurants.

[elamatt]

07:35 PM on 07/09/2011

LOL!!

[Elmos mom]

01:15 PM on 07/10/2011

Me too.

[ignacio sanabria]

06:36 PM on 07/07/2011

A novel is a novel, including romantic ones. Most romance novels would evolve around, what else but romance and romance is, either, tragic, wonderful, both, or none of the above.