Books and films have a major role to play in glamourising and normalising violent and abusive behaviour against women, it has been claimed.

According to US researchers, one in four women are victims of violence at the hands of their partners at some stage in their lives. They decided to look at the role of popular culture in this area by analysing the best selling book, Fifty Shades of Grey.

They also looked at patterns of violence in women in abusive relationships.

The researchers from Ohio State University found that the central female role in the book, Anastasia, suffers harm as a result of her relationship with the central male character, Christian.

They pointed out that emotional abuse is a major factor in the characters' relationship and this is characterised by intimidation, isolation and stalking.

Sexual violence also occurs throughout and this includes the use of alcohol to impair the female's consent. As a result, she suffers feelings of disempowerment, stress and altered identity.

The researchers emphasised that the male character helps perpetuate the problem of violence in a relationship. They believe that abuse in a relationship can become acceptable in society when it is normalised and glamourised in popular culture, such as books like Fifty Shades of Grey.

"We must be attuned to the way women are treated in books and movies, as such popular culture can perpetuate dangerous violence standards toward women," they insisted.

Details of these findings are published in the Journal of Women's Health.