An anonymous Bitchery reader was kind enough to send me this splash of a PR release: Romance Novels: Are They the Antidote to a Dreary Sex Life? It’s a promotional piece for a specific book, “Midwinter Turns to Spring,” but it cites two journals as evidence that romance readers know how to get it on:
Women who read romance novels make love with their partners 74% more often than women who don’t, according to Psychology Today. Furthermore, when women fantasize frequently (as they do when they read romance novels), they have sex more often, have more fun in bed, and engage in a wider variety of erotic activities, according to a report in Psychological Bulletin.
Now, I’m having a spot of trouble finding the study in question. I’ve found a previously-linked study about male body issues and the whole size-matters question, and I’ve found articles about using your love story to find your perfect mate. There’s even discussion on the healthful results of sexual fantasy. I’m down with that, but where’s the stuff about how if we read them trashy books wit’ the man-titties, we’re all fired up in the sack?
Hmm. I smell dubious PR.
But being of a mildly scientific bent (read: not scientific at ALL) I queried all of my husbands as to whether my love of romance novels has improved our sex life. He said: “I don’t know. I’ve never been married to someone who doesn’t read romance novels. But I’ll go with true.”
I can see how it might be true, certainly. To quote Candy, “Bitch. Please.” One good sex scene and many a reader is all, “Yo! Hubby! BOOTY CALL!”
And it’s not just the external mental stimulation that can make one go off and seek some happy action. Reading romance reminds me of the value of my own romance, and certainly makes me more attentive to the health of my marriage. Erotica & romantica were probably one of the best discoveries I made last year, if you queried the husbands living in my house.
I’m sure that the idea that romance novels are good for the gettin’ it on is sound – but I’m not sure that the referenced studies exist. You can read about what men and women consider romantic but I haven’t found any references to romanve novels on the Psychology Today website. Perhaps a Bitchery reader will have better skills and luck in the search than I have.
But dubious PR or not – what do you think? True? False? Or are you too busy “reading” right now to type?
Now, I’m having a spot of trouble finding the study in question
The journal is not indexed on PubMed. It does not appear to be a peer-reviewed journal, which makes us go, “Hmph!”
Yes, I’ve been trying to get my mitts on that study, too. I’m wondering if it might be hogwash of the it’s-probably-true-so-let’s-just-say-a-study-has-been-done variety.
BTW, did anyone else out there see that Ali G episode where he was going around to publishers trying to pitch his “Romance novel with a built in vibrator” idea?
As a literary critic of romance novels, I’ve heard of studies like that, but I couldn’t tell you where they were. If you gave me enough time, I could, but I just can’t be bothered. Sorry.
I have to object, however, to Maria Veloso’s novel being labelled as “the first-ever novel with its own music soundtrack,” because we all know that SEP’s This Heart of Mine had a soundtrack that her son put together. They might not have been sold together, but that happened in way back in 2001, so Ms. Veloso’s behind the times.
Not indexed? Not peer-reviewed? “It’s probably true?”
Certainly makes me say, “Hmph!”
And also, “Snort.”
Funny thing is, someone went through the trouble to make up the statistic – but I’m surprised that no one has thought to study the possibility that reading romance novels could help reinforce healthy sexual relationships, and relationships in general.
Hmm…not finding any such studies, but I did find a mildly interesting article in the Journal of Sex Research, Feb 2004, called Slash Fiction and Human Mating Psychology…
So which Bitch is going to send a study grant proposal in first to make a REAL study?
LOL @ calling it “slash fiction”…or did you mean horor stories? ROFL!
As I was returning from RWA this last summer, hubby was letting his boss know what time he’d have to head to the airport to pick me up. The boss casually asked where I’d been.
“Oh, she’s a romance writer,” hubby replied. “She went to the conference.”
This perks the boss’s ear. “She writes romance?”
“Yup.”
“And she’s been gone how long?”
“Five days.”
“Guess she’s probably pretty hard up by now, then, eh?”
Hubby was too busy laughing and agreeing to be offended on my part (and all right, I was), so though you may not be able to find a solid scientific study, it’s apparent men are taking polls all by themselves.
Dee
(who made Hubby’s lifetime by discovering erotica last year as well, lol)
I’m still hoping someone will track the study down and find it in JAMA or something equally quotable.
One always hears these quotes bandied about, but “When your mother says she loves you, check it out” works for this too.
OK, back from bank, grossery store, liberry.
When I said the journal wasn’t indexed in PubMed or peer-reviewed, I meant Psychology Today. Psychology Bulletin is in fact indexed (and its abbreviation on PubMed, strangely enough, is Psychol Bull).
I found the abstract below. It seems awfully old to be cited as current in 2006. But the parenthetical phrase from the promotional piece, “(as they do when they read romance novels),” also seems dubious, like the authors of the Psychol Bull article were talking about Something Completely Different.
Sexual fantasy.
by Leitenberg, Harold; Henning, Kris
from Psychological Bulletin. 1995 May Vol 117(3) 469-496
This article reviews the research literature on sexual fantasy, a central aspect of human sexual behavior. Topics include (a) gender similarities and differences in the incidence, frequency, and content of sexual fantasies and how they relate to sociocultural and sociobiological theories of sexual behavior; (b) the association between frequency or content of sexual fantasies and variables such as age, sexual adjustment and satisfaction, guilt, sexual orientation, personality, and sexual experience; and (c) “deviant” sexual fantasies (i.e., what they are, whether they play a role in the commission of sexual crimes, and whether they can be modified). The article ends with a summary of major findings and suggestions for future research.
I should have been a part of the survey/study. In reading romance novels, again after a long hiatus, not only has my sex drive and frequency with my husband gone off the meter, but it’s more intense!
Not to be pedantic, but I’ve found the source, I think:
Coles, Claire D., and M. Johnna Shamp (1984). “Some Sexual, Personality and Demographic Characteristics of Women Readers of Erotic Romances.” Archives of Sexual Behavior 13 (3): 187-209. The actual research was done in 1978, according to Carol Thurston in “The Romance Revoution.”
As Annie Savoy says in Bull Durham, “You could look it up.”
Eric