Overview

Throughout history and across cultures, love, marriage, and sexuality have rarely been expected to harmonize. Instead, they've developed independently, bundled together only by cultural expectations. There is no inherent or natural connection among them. Their combinations vary depending on economic status, class systems, and social mobility. In many societies, love, sexuality, and marriage remain separate, especially where family life dominates economic and political organization. Conversely, in more differentiated and modern societies, where institutions like education, politics, and economics are distinct from the family, marriage tends to evolve from being a rigid institution into a more personal contract. In such contexts, love and sexuality are more often integrated with marriage. However, gender inequality remains deeply rooted. Women, often denied independent access to social status or financial means, are left with their sexuality as a negotiable resource. This politicization of female sexuality leads to strategic behaviors-like sexual restraint-that artificially inflate its perceived value. Femininity supports this restraint, rewarding women who make themselves desirable while withholding sex. This dynamic turns sexuality into a commodity and women into sex objects, reinforcing the trade of sexuality for long-term commitment, often through marriage. In this system, men and women engage in a transactional game, each using the other as a means to secure something-be it love, security, or status. True emotional intimacy and mature love become rare and difficult. The result is a widespread alienation of individuals from their emotions and a continued separation of love, marriage, and sexuality. This book argues that the fundamental sociological and psychological inequality between men and women creates structural barriers to authentic love. As long as women remain economically dependent on men, marriage will be pursued not for love, but for survival and status. Upper-class women may have the privilege to marry for love, but most do not. Yet, recent decades have seen a shift. With growing access to education, employment, and contraception, women are increasingly able to depoliticize their sexuality and gain more control over their intimate choices. Even when wages are low, the symbolic significance of economic independence has empowered women. These changes, aided by feminist movements and evolving gender philosophies, are gradually leading toward greater equality in relationships. In modern differentiated societies, marriage is often a pathway to social mobility, particularly for women. Men, especially from upper and middle classes, do not rely on marriage for status and thus have more freedom to incorporate love and sexuality into their partnerships. Meanwhile, women's rising autonomy allows them to prioritize emotional and personal compatibility-like mutual understanding, sexual chemistry, and emotional intelligence-over social positioning. As the pressure to marry for legitimacy or survival decreases, love, marriage, and sexuality may no longer be lifelong commitments forced by norms. Instead, they become optional, chosen expressions of individual will and affection. This book is written with the hope that we continue moving toward a society where love is liberated from inequality, and where men and women are empowered to love each other not as objects or roles-but as full human beings.

Full Product Details

9798298089401

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Countries Available