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While being firmly rooted in and committed to the Western context, within which this piece is located, the discussions are not generalized since the aim of this paper is to offer a critical and theoretical appraisal of romantic and queer love. The theoretical lens applied here is symbolic interactionism. The examples of gay love that are examined include the following: gay open relationships; queer monogamy; and gay love in gay friendships. The added dimensions of sexuality and gender are noticeable when making links between gender and sexual relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Evolutionary selection pressures, most notably sexual selection, have created (and continue to sustain) many psychobehavioral differences between females and males. One such domain where psychobehavioral sex differences may be prominent is romantic love. The ways in which females and males may experience and express romantic love differently has been studied in psychology as well as in the arts down the ages; however, no studies have focused specifically on romantic love (i.e., passionate love) using validated measures of romantic love solely in people who are currently experiencing this form of love. Methods: This study investigated sex differences in features and aspects of romantic love among 808 young adults experiencing romantic love. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to measure sex differences in the number of times participants had fallen in love, when they fell in love relative to when they started their romantic relationship (love progression), intensity of romantic love, obsessive thinking about a loved one, and commitment. Additional univariate comparisons were made for sex differences in Passionate Love Scale scores. Results: Univariate analyses showed that males had fallen in love a greater number of times than females. Males had also fallen in love more quickly than females. Females had higher intensity of romantic love, higher commitment, and higher obsessive thinking about a loved one than males. These findings remained robust in multivariate analyses, controlling for several variables believed to influence romantic love, with the exception of commitment, which was no longer significant when other variables were controlled for. Conclusions: The findings are considered with reference to the evolutionary theory of sexual selection. We suggest that the specific adaptive challenges faced by females and males in the evolutionary history of romantic love may contribute to sex differences in romantic love. The findings shed light on contemporary sex differences in romantic love, as well as the possible evolutionary history and evolutionary functions of romantic love. Plain Language Summary: Some studies have investigated differences in romantic love (i.e., passionate love) between females and males, but none have done so using validated measures of romantic love while focusing solely on people who are currently in love. Our participants were all young adults (aged 18-25) from 33 different countries mainly in Europe, North America, and South Africa. All participants were currently in love. We compared females and males on (1) the number of times they had ever been in love, (2) when they fell in love compared to when they started their romantic relationship, (3) the intensity of romantic love, (4) how much they obsessed about their partner, and (5) their level of commitment to their partner. Some small differences were found between females and males for all these variables, but when we took into account other things that may influence romantic love, we found that sex differences generally diminished. We discuss the findings with reference to one evolutionary theory related to romantic love. Highlights: Males fall in love slightly more often than females do. Males fall in love about one month earlier than females do. Females experience romantic love slightly more intensely than males do. Females in love experience obsessive thinking about their loved one more than males do. Females in love are slightly more committed than males are. Sex differences reduce at a multivariate level. Romantic love may have solved some different adaptive challenges for females and males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to discuss the phenomenological status of love considered as an erotic phenomenon. Is care a kind of desire? A will? A modality of attention? A feeling? Is it rather an existential attitude towards its object? And in this case, how to understand such an attitude? Does Heidegger's concept of Fürsorge exhaust its nature? It seems necessary to address a specific limitation of fundamental ontology, the equivalency between care and care for oneself, to make room for the possibility of a primary (and not derived) care for another (and also a primary anxiety for another) that seems hardly understandable in Heidegger's terms. But it also seems necessary to supplement the concept of care with two other "existentials": unconditional trust and being carried. The article finally examines love as an experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundMethodsResultsConclusionThere is an increase in the variation of family forms, types of parenthood roles and methods for family formation. One way of family building has most recently been referred to as ‘elective co-parenting’. Yet, many other terms and somewhat diverging concept definitions have been put forward. This paper aims to establish a fundamental conceptual framework.We will adhere to a tailored set of guidelines for conceptual ethics organised in four stages: (i) Using a minimal scoping review of published definitions potential attributes are identified, (ii) The potential attributes are organised by theme in order to identify any necessary and sufficient or shared ones, (iii) A conceptual definition of the concept is developed, (iv) The most fitting concept label is determined.Current terminology lacks comprehensiveness and often contains additional (hidden) meanings, thereby jeopardising its usability for research on contemporary family formation. We suggest a new nomenclature.We suggest PACT (Pre-conception Agreement-based Co-parenting Together-apart) instead of ‘elective co-parenting’ (or equivalents) as a new concept label for this particular family type, whereby at least two parties of co-parents have agreed before the conception of a child to share parenting of this child. A party can refer either to an individual or a set of romantically involved individuals. Although there may be different types of loving relationships between some (or all) co-parents within this constellation, there is at least some ‘detachment’ that is recognised as being created and present by an absence of romantic love between those parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We examined the association between adult women's reports of parentification during childhood and the extent to which basic psychological needs are satisfied in romantic relationships. We also explored the mediating role of sense of relational entitlement, pathological concern, and authenticity in relational contexts. Background: Negative implications of adults' sense of being parentified as children have been observed in relational feelings, cognitions, and behavior. Method: A convenience sample of 225 Israeli young adult women completed self‐report scales tapping retrospective accounts of parentification, basic psychological needs in romantic relationships, sense of relational entitlement, pathological concern, and relational authenticity. The data were analyzed with Pearson correlations and a mediation analysis. Results: Parentification was associated with lower levels of need satisfaction and authenticity within romantic relationships and higher levels of pathological concern and either a restricted or inflated sense of relational entitlement. An inflated sense of relational entitlement and lack of authenticity mediated the association between women's reports of parentification and the extent to which they feel their personal needs are satisfied in romantic relationships. Conclusion: Women who feel parentified during childhood tend to show negative expectations of relational mutuality and experience difficulties in disclosing their personal needs and wishes to a partner, which seem to lead them to feel that their basic psychological needs are not satisfied in romantic relationships. Implications: Findings highlight the problematic nature of feelings of being parentified as children and the importance of helping people who hold these feeling to communicate their relational needs to a romantic partner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the translation of the Old French romance Partonopeu de Blois into Middle English, arguing against the notion that the adaptations represent a mere simplification. Topics include the cultural implications of prioritizing action and dialogue in Middle English romances, the evolving characterization of the romance hero; and the broader significance of translation as a commentary and cultural transmission practice.

This study reconsiders the well-documented argument that young Japanese women's romantic desire (akogare) for the gender equality of the West motivates them to study English. This study analyzes numerical and written data from 100 female Japanese English learners aged 20 to 59. The findings revealed that while akogare for the West serves as a catalyst for English study among them, the motivational effect differs by age and self-perceived English proficiency. The study also shows that many research participants assess young Japanese women's akogare for the West as natural due to their perceptions of the West as a place endowed with positive attributes (e.g., appreciation for individual freedom). • Japanese women's desires (akogare) for the West are associated with their English study motivation, but not with life (dis)satisfaction with life in Japan. • The association between akogare for the West and English study motivation is impacted by age and self-perceived English proficiency. • Many participants assess young Japanese women's akogare for the West as natural by perceiving the West as a place endowed with positive attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A biography of Sherwood Anderson, the American writer, is presented. He was born in Camden, Ohio, in 1876 and studied at Wittenberg Academy. He then enrolled at the Chicago art scene and worked in advertising before becoming a full-time writer. He was a novelist and short story writer and was married four times, with three children from his first marriage. His approach to dealing with love, relationships, and marriage is reflected in his prolific letters, autobiographical themes in his novels.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the winter 2025 issue of the Ohioana Quarterly, highlighting themes of love and romance in Ohio literature, including an article on Sherwood Anderson, interviews with Ohio romance writers, book recommendations, and upcoming literary events.

I love you is among the most meaningful utterances in English speakers' organization of intimacy, yet remains understudied by scholars of language. This article investigates metapragmatic discourse about the first exchange of I love you between romantic partners using data from the social media platform Reddit. The discourse reveals a normative model in which I love you functions not only as an expression of emotion but a speech act that is ideologically constructed as committing the speaker and inviting the listener onto a relationship path that includes monogamy, long-term commitment, and eventually cohabitation and marriage. Normative discourses about and practices surrounding I love you thereby bolster the hypervalorization of romantic relationships, the validation of jealousy and possessiveness as expressions of love, and the naturalization of monogamy and normative Western family structures. Drawing on discourses of polyamory, asexuality, and disability/neurodivergence, we point to alternative possibilities for love's meaning and expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Interpersonal touch is an essential element of human social life. It’s unclear whether the neural patterns of interpersonal touch are specific to intimate relationships or generally apply to other social relationships. Romantic lovers are typically intimate and have a high level of interpersonal touch. Currently, researchers focused on the neurobiological basis and neural processes of romantic love. Methods 110 participants finished two resting-state blocks, no-handholding and handholding conditions, with Electroencephalogram (EEG). We aimed to explore the differences in the brain-brain synchrony pattern of interpersonal touch between romantic lovers and strangers by calculating dynamic interpersonal functional connectivity (dIFC) via EEG-based hyperscanning. Results Our results supported that the neural processing of interpersonal touch is a dynamic process. At first half, both groups tended to adapt, and then interpersonal touch increased the dIFC between romantic lovers and decreased the dIFC between strangers. Finally, we employed Support Vector Machine (SVM) to classify EEG signals into two different relationships. SVM recognized two relationships with an accuracy of 71% and 0.77 AUC of ROC at the first half, a 73% accuracy and 0.8 AUC of ROC at the second half. Conclusions Our study indicates that interpersonal touch may have different meanings between romantic lovers and strangers. Specifically, interpersonal touch enhances the dIFC between romantic lovers while reducing the dIFC between strangers. The research has important implications for planning touch-based interventions in social and medical care.

Given the ubiquitous nature of love, numerous theories have been proposed to explain its existence. One such theory refers to love as a commitment device, suggesting that romantic love evolved to foster commitment between partners and enhance their reproductive success. In the present study, we investigated this hypothesis using a large-scale sample of 86,310 individual responses collected across 90 countries. If romantic love is universally perceived as a force that fosters commitment between long-term partners, we expected that individuals likely to suffer greater losses from the termination of their relationships—including people of lower socioeconomic status, those with many children, and women—would place a higher value on romantic love compared to people with higher status, those with fewer children, and men. These predictions were supported. Additionally, we observed that individuals from countries with a higher (vs. lower) Human Development Index placed a greater level of importance on romantic love, suggesting that modernization might influence how romantic love is evaluated. On average, participants worldwide were unwilling to commit to a long-term romantic relationship without love, highlighting romantic love's universal importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders" by Margaret Clunies Ross explores the role of poetry in Icelandic sagas over a 200-year period. Clunies Ross argues that saga writers made deliberate choices about which poems to include and how to use them to suit changing aesthetic tastes. The article delves into the authenticity of the poetry in sagas, the clustering of verses, and the subject matter of the poetry. Clunies Ross also discusses kennings of men and women in sagas, as well as the absence of poetry in some sagas. The article provides valuable insights into the literary and historical significance of poetry in Icelandic sagas. [Extracted from the article]

This study examines and categorises subjective perceptions of love among individuals in their twenties and thirties, offering insights into their viewpoints during early adulthood. The study employed the Q methodology, suitable for analysing subjective perceptions such as perspectives, thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes. It included 23 participants selected through purposive sampling from the 2030 generation residing in South Korea, with 40 statements constructed for the research. The findings revealed four types. Type 1, 'Love Healing', experiences psychological well-being through love. Type 2, 'Love Anxious', longs for true love but is anxious. Type 3, 'Love Myself', expresses hope for healthy love through self-awareness. Type 4, 'Love Mate', seeks to maintain psychological love while pursuing independence. This research also explores similarities and differences between existing adult attachment and love types, highlighting the need for practical support tailored to each type. These insights may serve as a foundation for developing coaching and counselling services that help individuals in their twenties and thirties cultivate healthy love and mature into their authentic selves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonverbal connection is an important aspect of everyday communication. For romantic partners, nonverbal connection is essential for establishing and maintaining feelings of closeness. EEG hyperscanning offers a unique opportunity to examine the link between nonverbal connection and neural synchrony among romantic partners. This current study used an EEG hyperscanning paradigm to collect frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) signatures from 30 participants (15 romantic dyads) engaged in five different types of nonverbal connection that varied based on physical touch and visual contact. The results suggest that there was a lack of FAA while romantic partners were embracing and positive FAA (i.e., indicating approach) while they were holding hands, looking at each other, or doing both. Additionally, partners' FAA synchrony was greatest at a four second lag while they were holding hands and looking at each other. Finally, there was a significant association between partners' weekly negative feelings and FAA such that as they felt more negative their FAA became more positive. Taken together, this study further supports the idea that fleeting moments of interpersonal touch and gaze are important for the biological mechanisms that may underlie affiliative pair bonding in romantic relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde offers many rhetorical lessons and models in how to speak and behave well according to the mediaeval conventions of fin'amor. The first three books of the poem are especially concerned with the best ways to control and express deep feeling. The two lovers prepare nervously for their first meeting at the beginning of Book III. Troilus, in particular, rehearses and seeks to memorise the best words, gestures, and facial expressions to use when he first speaks with Criseyde. In Book V, Diomede enacts very similar practices in his seduction of Criseyde, but the reader is encouraged to read this as a different kind of deliberate performance. Using the work of Monique Scheer and other theorists of emotional practice and the history of emotions, this essay explores the ambiguity of performance as both a rehearsed theatrical mode; and as the practice and affirmation of conventional forms of emotional expression. It concludes by proposing that Thomas Hoccleve's 'mirror scene' in his Compleinte draws on Troilus's rehearsals, adopting the performance anxiety associated with romantic love for his own more social and public concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics of Western societies pose significant challenges to how emerging adults view their futures. In the present study, we analyzed the associations between romantic attachment, self-regulation, and future expectations of emerging adults controlling the sex and age of participants. More specifically, we analyzed the moderating role of goal-setting, decision-making, and learning from mistakes (self-regulation dimensions) in the links between trustful, dependent, avoidant, and ambivalent romantic relationships and future expectations. The sample, collected by convenience in Portugal, includes 571 emerging adults (76.2% were female and 23.8% were male) aged between 18 and 30 years (M = 23.31; SD = 3.35). Our results indicate significant associations between trust, dependent, avoidant, and ambivalent romantic relationships, with different dimensions of future expectations. Findings indicated that goal-setting moderates the association between dependent and avoidant romantic relationships and pessimism. We discuss these findings based on attachment theory, considering the relevance of emotional bonds and self-regulatory processes in future planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although some Kakataibo women say that their elders did not know romantic love and that they learned it only recently by going to the city, that romantic love is actually having a hard time taking root in Indigenous Amazonia. This article explores some aspects of affectivity based on Amazonian women's discourses and experiences of love and conjugality. Using an analytical framework of the anthropology of affects, I argue that to understand Indigenous uneasiness about passionate love as a voluntary, sublimated, and symmetrical relationship, love needs to be approached in terms of control exerted by one person over another. The ethnography of sensible experiences related to love and desire, in which women often occupy the place of prey, sheds light not only on the relational dimension of the affect and on the feminine interpretation of a lived world permeated by power relations, but it also allows us to add some nuance to the Indigenous conception of gender and the underlying notion of agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting a walkthrough of the game application, participant observation of online fan communities, and a narrative analysis of storylines, this study seeks to understand how local female-orientated love simulation games re-calibrate Western feminist ideologies with/through constructions of romantic love. This study argues that with the development and backlash of feminist ideologies and neo-liberal economic restructuring in post-socialist China, female-oriented love simulation games now present what I coin “Platformed Post-Feminist Negotiation” (hereafter PPN). First, the PRP transplants Western post-feminism to veil the latent and toxic consumerism with the rhetoric of women’s empowerment. Second, the PPN inherits Chinese feminism’s dynamic negotiation with Confucian ideals and the conservative state ideology. While compromising with dominant ideologies to escape from China’s stringent digital censorship, game developers have aligned with players to carry out micro, covert, and indirect resistance to protecting female sexual freedom. Third, the PPN refers to how digital games are platformed as technical tools to manufacture a variant post-feminism that can be defined as empowering women, ignoring structural gender inequalities, and negotiating with state censorship. This study contributes to Chinese digital games’ post-feminist narrative patterns and how contemporary post-feminism appropriates technological affordances in an increasingly platformed society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In (re)considering the viability of Jamaican dancehall and reggae artist Tanya Stephens's rejection of the label 'feminist', this paper uses her song, Wats Yu (S)touri, from her 2004 Gangster Blues album to trace several critical grassroots performativities which address popular forms of Jamaican grassroots women's activism. These modes of activism are regarded as reflective of traditional feminist practices which carry over to dancehall. The paper is primarily concerned with the context of Stephens's music, specifically regarding whether some of her storytelling practices conform with the vernacular tradition of taakin op (a strident retort). It offers a reading of feminism against Stephens's claim, suggesting that dancehall practices like taakin op are also linked to longer histories of Jamaican grassroots performativities which extend beyond the dancehall itself. The aim is to understand how Stephens's feminism, albeit disavowed, enlarges ideas about dancehall as a subversive hi/story of post/colonial Blackness in Jamaica. Accordingly, specific attention is paid to themes of romantic love, work and 'gyangsta feminism', a coinage following the title of a track on the same album. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence is a time of elation and sublime emotions which are also reflected in partner relationships, within a context characterised by materialism and social structures in which gender relations are affected by the domination/subordination model. This paper analyses the affective-sexual relationships of adolescents as a place of violence, power relations, domination and submission. It also studies the importance of social networks in their way of interacting and learning. The methodology used was, on the one hand, the review of bibliographic material regarding romance, partner relationships, gender violence and using of networks, and, on the other hand, the analysis of the results obtained from two studies carried out by the University of Granada, with quantitative and qualitative information on adolescents in Andalusia. The results of this research indicate that relationships are permeated by the idealisation of romantic love and by stereotypes leading to practices of control and possession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A profound developmental experience is the emergence of adolescent romantic relationships and first feelings of love. However, the daily nature of feeling loved in adolescents' everyday lives is poorly understood. We investigated how daily stress severity was associated with adolescents' levels of feeling loved and whether romantic partner support moderated these associations. Furthermore, we investigated this for non‐interpersonal and interpersonal stressors. N = 97 mixed‐gender adolescent romantic couples (age M = 16.38, SD = 1.02) from an ethnically diverse sample (42.2% Hispanic/Latino/a/x, 44.7% White) participated in dyadic diary assessments twice a week for 12 consecutive weeks. Both partners independently completed open‐ended questions about a daily stressor, indicating stress severity, perceived partner support, and feeling loved. Daily stressors were coded for non‐interpersonal and various types of interpersonal stressors. Results from the dyadic multilevel model showed that days with lower than average support from a romantic partner amplify the adverse effects of stress severity on feeling loved, especially when the partner is involved in the stressor. We discuss the spillover of stress in romantic relationships and the stress‐buffering functions of adolescent romantic partner support. Adolescent romantic partners are potentially essential regulators of stress, increasing adolescents' feelings of love. Research Highlights: Romantic love is central in adolescents' lives; we showed that adolescents generally feel loved by romantic partners.Feeling loved fluctuates daily as adolescents feel less loved on stressful days.However, when adolescents perceive their partner as supportive, there is no association between stress and feeling loved. Partner support is protective for feeling loved.The current study provides essential insights into when adolescents and why adolescents feel loved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay follows the circuitous journey of the terms "Romanticism" and "the Romantic" from the classic period of Romantic poetry (1789-1815) to related political forms: revolution, reaction, nationalism, National Socialism, and a twenty-first century variety of anti-rational manipulation. I follow the movement from love and freedom in the Romantic poetry of 1800 to the cruelty of anti-rational politics and argue that Romanticism was not the cause of fascism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romantic experiences are positive emotional experiences that significantly affect people's lives and consumption behaviors. Extant research merely conceptualizes romantic experiences as intimate relationships between lovers and investigates their impact on the consumption of specific products (e.g., sweets, movies, and tourist destinations). In this study, we extend the concept of romantic experience beyond romantic love and demonstrate how romantic experience influences consumers' preferences for self‐improvement products based on the broaden‐and‐build theory through four experiments. Specifically, we show that romantic experiences (vs. neutral experiences) increase consumers' preference for self‐improvement products, even in areas unrelated to the initial romantic stimuli (Study 1). This greater inclination toward self‐improvement products is mediated by a heightened sense of meaning in life (Studies 2 and 3). Moreover, the focal effect is moderated by self‐construal (Study 4). These findings complement those of previous studies on how romantic experiences influence consumption choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romantic love is associated with mind wandering about the beloved. We tested associations between mind wandering about the beloved and infatuation, attachment, self-reported distraction, task performance, and enjoyment. Participants who were in love completed self-report measures and a sustained attention response task with thought probes. Participants reported thinking about their beloved for 67% of the time in general and up to 42% of the time during task performance. Thinking about the beloved in general was positively associated with infatuation (passionate love) but not with attachment (companionate love). The more time participants reported thinking about their beloved in general, the more distracting they found it and the less they could withhold a response to no go stimuli. The more participants thought about their beloved during the task, the slower their responses to go stimuli were. In contrast to the negative terminology typically used to describe frequent thoughts about the beloved, such as intrusive or obsessive thinking, participants overwhelmingly enjoyed thinking about their beloved. The findings suggest that romantic love impairs cognitive task performance because people are thinking about their beloved instead, which may negatively impact performance at school and work. Nevertheless, people seem to greatly enjoy thinking about their beloved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Interpersonal touch is an essential element of human social life. It's unclear whether the neural patterns of interpersonal touch are specific to intimate relationships or generally apply to other social relationships. Romantic lovers are typically intimate and have a high level of interpersonal touch. Currently, researchers focused on the neurobiological basis and neural processes of romantic love. Methods: 110 participants finished two resting-state blocks, no-handholding and handholding conditions, with Electroencephalogram (EEG). We aimed to explore the differences in the brain-brain synchrony pattern of interpersonal touch between romantic lovers and strangers by calculating dynamic interpersonal functional connectivity (dIFC) via EEG-based hyperscanning. Results: Our results supported that the neural processing of interpersonal touch is a dynamic process. At first half, both groups tended to adapt, and then interpersonal touch increased the dIFC between romantic lovers and decreased the dIFC between strangers. Finally, we employed Support Vector Machine (SVM) to classify EEG signals into two different relationships. SVM recognized two relationships with an accuracy of 71% and 0.77 AUC of ROC at the first half, a 73% accuracy and 0.8 AUC of ROC at the second half. Conclusions: Our study indicates that interpersonal touch may have different meanings between romantic lovers and strangers. Specifically, interpersonal touch enhances the dIFC between romantic lovers while reducing the dIFC between strangers. The research has important implications for planning touch-based interventions in social and medical care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within romantic relationships, secret-keeping has been related to negative outcomes whereas self-disclosure has been related to positive outcomes. Exploring young adult women's pornography use disclosures to their romantic partners can provide further avenues for understanding aspects of sexual and relational health. Using an open-ended survey informed by the Revelation Risk Model (RRM), this study explored young adult women's reasons and perceived relational outcomes of disclosing their pornography use to their romantic partners. Data from 32 young adult women (M = 20.8 years old), were thematically analyzed. Women in our sample reported disclosing for three main reasons: disclosed to be close, disclosed because we are intimate, and speaking our minds. They also reported that their disclosures resulted in emotional, sexual, or no relational changes. Further, we found that women who engaged in more in-depth conversations following their pornography disclosures perceived there to be more positive relational changes in comparison to women who had surface-level conversations following their pornography disclosures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important themes in lyrical literature is love with the beloved at the core of this topic. The physical beauty of the beloved has a great effect on the lover, leading to describing the beloved's body as a common tradition in Romantic poetry. The aim of this study is to investigate and analyze the characteristics of the beloved with a descriptive-analytical method, focusing on contemporary Kurdish poetry of Īlam. The results of my study show that the characteristics of the beloved can be categorized into seven items. The descriptions of the beloved in the poems by the poets of Īlam are both beautiful and diverse, totaling about seventy. The portrayal of the beloved is completely realistic; the poets describe her eyes, hair, lips and breasts, respectively. Particularly notable is the emphasis on the beloved's big intoxicating eyes which captivate the minds of the Kurdish poets. It is interesting to note that in contrast to Persian poetry which favors dark eyes, Kurdish poetry praises blue eyes more. Other differences are the simple language used in Kurdish poetry with less attention to complex imagery as well as the pleasant and intimate relationship with the beloved in Kurdish poetry compared to Persian poetry which employs a much more complicated language and imagery. In many cases, the lover complains about being neglected by the beloved. Poets in Kurdish poems opt for simple imagery, drawing on elements from their surroundings such as flowers, vegetables, constellations and animals. This choice reflects their lifestyle which includes activities like agriculture, animal husbandry and hunting. Overall, the portrayal of the beloved in these poems reflects a deep appreciation for beauty and nature as well as a connection to traditional Kurdish culture and lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Did love conquer marriage between the 19th and 20th centuries in France? Does a personal choice imply a free choice? To date, no study has had access to sources that are both numerous and sufficiently stable over the vast period of the 19th and 20th centuries to allow a comprehensive examination of the simultaneous emergence of the love marriage norm and its impact on spouse selection. This paper sets out specifically to explore the issues of spouse selection and the eco-intimate changes in marriages, highlighting the evolution of the love marriage norm, using the archives of matrimonial agencies and advertisements from the 19th and 20th centuries. While the writings of the time debated the merits of marrying for money versus marrying for love, the dating market was serving a bourgeois clientele in search of homogamy. The study of agency operations shows how these marriages first unite two families and two heritages from the same milieu. This good match is seen as a necessary condition for mutual affection. When, in the 20th century, matrimonial ads more systematically enabled individuals to search for their spouse themselves, without the help of their family, these economic stakes did not disappear, but underwent a significant evolution. They are now put on the same level as moral and physical criteria. While homogamy was still preferred, it was no longer considered the only condition for a happy union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract What does it mean to feel passionately for the subject one teaches? What does such a passion entail for those involved in the teaching–learning situation? This study focuses on the teacher’s passion for their subject. Nine scholarly texts were reviewed, which allowed for four distinct notions of passion to be discerned: i.e., romantic, friendly, erotic, and divine love. Findings showed also combinations of these notions as well as ontological variations. Inductively created themes revealed that the foundations of these different notions of passion ranged from love of the Truth and the Good to a calling from the subject, and that the character of these notions ranged from them being about intellectual and emotional allure to being about their being disclosed and brought to fulfilment. It also revealed what the different notions of love entailed for the teacher, the student, and the subject itself: for the teacher—from a demand to seek the good in the subject to a requirement to perceive the subject as a voice, the subject in turn making their life meaningful; for the student—from becoming part of the community of “we who love subject X” to a “homecoming of self-hood”; and for the subject itself—from beginning to reveal itself to holding teachers and students accountable. The usefulness of the findings for teacher education and research on teacher–student relations is discussed.

The essay examines the metaphysical possibility of romantic self-love. It makes difference between two forms of such love feeling like de re and de dicto. Based on this difference, the impossibility of romantic self-love de dicto is demonstrated, since this would violate one of the constitutive conditions of such a love feeling — the requirement of the numerical distinctness between the lover and the beloved.

China has experienced substantial transformations since the Economic Reform in 1978, as echoed by cultural changes in many facets of life. Previous research has examined cultural changes in China by focusing on books and other cultural products, albeit with a limited scope across various life domains. In the current study, we aim to explore a more comprehensive range of realms encompassing diverse aspects of Chinese life. To achieve this, we utilize an informative yet underexamined cultural product: TV dramas. Successful TV dramas appeal to the audience's preferences and needs and reflect cultural characteristics of the time. We collected information on top-rated Chinese urban TV dramas between 1980 and 2019 and coded them into 17 common themes reflecting various aspects of life. We then examined the trajectory of each theme over time from 1980 to 2019. Overall, the following themes became more prevalent in TV dramas over time: affair, divorce, family, romantic love, wedding, the pursuit of wealth, dinner party, house rental, house purchase, shopping, and death. The early 1990s mark a pivotal period. Specifically, the depiction of career pursuit in TV dramas switched from decreasing to increasing in the early 1990s. Around the same period, the depiction of survival stopped increasing and started to go down. Consistent with past literature, we found rising trends for themes indicating both traditional (e.g., family) and modern values (e.g., divorce), suggesting the coexistence of modernity and traditionality in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent trends in marriage include delaying marriage, the rise of singlehood, and romantic or companionate marriage. In studying these developments, including in Indonesia, anthropologists have largely focused on urban, educated, middle class youth, where ideals of romantic love and couple-focused fulfilment are evident. To broaden this perspective, this article focuses on the experiences of young, lower-class, low-income newlyweds. Drawing on diverse ethnographic life stories from Indonesia (metropolitan Java, rural West Sumatra, and coastal Papua), we show that marital ideas and practices stressed broader family expectations and social legitimacy, social and economic forms of care, and interdependence with extended kin. They did not generally express middle class romantic and companionate notions of love or marriage. These accounts highlight the salience of everyday material, social and economic aspects of care in marriage that have received less consideration recently due to the anthropological interest in romance, intimacy, and care as loving attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does it mean to feel passionately for the subject one teaches? What does such a passion entail for those involved in the teaching–learning situation? This study focuses on the teacher's passion for their subject. Nine scholarly texts were reviewed, which allowed for four distinct notions of passion to be discerned: i.e., romantic, friendly, erotic, and divine love. Findings showed also combinations of these notions as well as ontological variations. Inductively created themes revealed that the foundations of these different notions of passion ranged from love of the Truth and the Good to a calling from the subject, and that the character of these notions ranged from them being about intellectual and emotional allure to being about their being disclosed and brought to fulfilment. It also revealed what the different notions of love entailed for the teacher, the student, and the subject itself: for the teacher—from a demand to seek the good in the subject to a requirement to perceive the subject as a voice, the subject in turn making their life meaningful; for the student—from becoming part of the community of "we who love subject X" to a "homecoming of self-hood"; and for the subject itself—from beginning to reveal itself to holding teachers and students accountable. The usefulness of the findings for teacher education and research on teacher–student relations is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to provide validity evidence and reliability of the Scale of Myths of Romantic Love (SMRL) in Peru among young and adult individuals. Focusing on how romantic love myths affect relationship satisfaction and their ties to interpersonal violence, sexism, and gender inequality, the methodology involved 308 participants, mainly females (75%), using the SMRL and Relationship Assessment Scale. Bayesian Confirmatory Factor Analysis (BCFA) assessed the scale's structure and reliability, complemented by descriptive statistics and correlation analyses to examine the myths' impact on intimate relationships. Results showed the SMRL's two‐dimensional structure, confirming its robust psychometric properties and satisfactory internal consistency. Descriptive findings revealed a skeptical view of traditional romantic myths among participants, indicating the scale's good reliability and successful adaptation to the Peruvian context. This validation highlights how debunking romantic love myths can improve relationship dynamics and satisfaction and addresses their wider societal effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between romantic love and polyamory. Our central question is whether traditional norms of monogamy can be excised from romantic love so as to harmonize with polyamory's ethical dimensions (as we construe them). How one answers this question bears on another: whether ‘polyamory’ should principally be understood in terms of romantic love or instead some alternative conception(s). Our efforts to address these questions begin by briefly motivating our favored approach to romantic love, a ‘narratival’ one inspired by 1930s cultural theorist Denis de Rougemont, wherein such love is exclusive, supernatural or promising transcendence, painful, impeded, and, ultimately, fatal. We maintain that, even once exclusivity is removed as an official component, tensions with polyamory's ethical dimensions remain: romantic love's other elements rationalize acting and feeling in ways that privilege a singular beloved above others. A tempting solution is to further revise romantic love. However, we are skeptical that this leaves space for distinctively romantic love. Our tentative proposal, then, is that polyamory's ethical dimensions favor rejecting romantic love as ultimately desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's low fertility rate has been a concern for over thirty years. Despite a vast literature on the topic, numerous policies and measures to boost the country's fertility rate, and the will of Japanese people to have a family, Japan seems powerless to remedy the problem commonly called shôshika in Japanese. Yet, Southern parts of Japan show that it does not equally affect the archipelago. Remote islands in Japan have an exceptionally high fertility rate compared to other developed countries. The paper aims to understand the reasons for their high fertility rate by focusing on late and lifelong singlehood (bankonka and mikonka) as a critical factor of the shôshika. It will particularly pay attention to the perception of love and romance in one of those remote islands: Tokunoshima. It will argue that the absence of commodification in romantic intercourse facilitates matchmaking that would result in the creation of a family. People are more likely to meet someone with whom they will have a family when the dating process is not embedded with commodified gestures. On another note, although their view of dating is similar to individuals in other developed countries, the practice of dating takes alternative forms that force them not to rely on the commodification of romance, which increases their chances of matchmaking. As a result, inhabitants of Tokunoshima quickly find a marriage partner, which contributes to the absence of late and lifelong singlehood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term "lovebirds" is often used to describe the loving behaviors and interactions between two romantic partners, but what specific processes distinguish these flourishing lovebird relationships from other committed but "numbed" relationships? The present study aimed to address this knowledge gap through the development and preliminary validation of the Lovebird Scale. The Lovebird Scale describes the thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and habits that constitute and maintain relationship flourishing, which in turn could promote aspects of individual flourishing such as positive affect. We conducted three studies using data collected from 996 English-speaking U.S. adults (64.2% Female, M = 39.2 years old) who reported being in a romantic relationship for at least six months (M = 11.2 years). In Study 1, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis to determine the underlying factor structure. In Study 2, confirmatory factor analyses revealed a three-factor model nested within a higher-order factor representing lovebird relationships. In Study 3, we cross-validated the higher-order structure, examined the construct validity of the scale, and explored associations between the Lovebird Scale and affective state. Finally, we discuss how the Lovebird Scale contributes to the growing field of positive relationship science as well as conceptual and clinical implications of the scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]