Love in the time of corpulence
Good week, bad week By Roxanne Sorooshian
It’s been a good week for ... romance
AN academic has discovered what my gran knew all along. Mills & Boon should be read with pride, not shame.
Far from formulaic, lightweight tat, these books are feminist texts, according to Sheffield University researcher Val Derbyshire. “It’s such a shame they have been so vilified, and that people treat them as trash and the black sheep of the literary family,” says Derbyshire, who says these novels are “written primarily by women, for women” so “why would they set out to insult their target audience?”
I confess that I haven’t read one since I was about 10, when my gran would press them upon me as mustreads. As my contemporaries worked through the Famous Five, I was racing through somewhat racier material.
My critical literary skills weren’t sophisticated, but I knew that beyond the escapism there was a vague message that the feisty female would overcome the failings of the dark male hero.
Anyway, my brush with the genre was short-lived and I soon moved on to Jane Austen. Perhaps Mills & Boon was the perfect literary grounding.
It’s been a bad week for ... thin men
The brooding heroes of Mills & Boon might often have been mean, but I don’t recall any being skinny. That wouldn’t have fitted the hunky stereotype.
Just as well for our heroines. New research suggests thin men are less generous than their fatter counterparts. In yet another study the world could probably have lived without, scientists also found being hungry affects judgment. When skinnier men have lower blood sugar they are at their most stingy, while the overweight are less affected.
This groundbreaking research comes from scientists at the University of Lubeck and the Max Planck Institute of Economics, who looked at 20 overweight men (averaging 19 stone) and 20 thin subjects (averaging 11 stone).
The study found lean men made less fair decisions, and offered 16 per cent less money than fatter men in games designed to measure generosity. According to the authors: “Low blood glucose concentrations seem to favour self-interest and lack of trust.”
Novelists please note: the next time you invent a romantic hero, make sure he’s fat and has had his dinner.