Sociology: family & relationships
September 2020
A New Name for Love
by Belinda Cannone
How to describe and understand modern relationships? Belinda Cannone tracks the metamorphoses of love. From unions “for life” to love matches that emerged at the end of the eighteenth century, and to the twentieth-century revolutions that established desire as a requisite ingredient for a successful relationship. These revolutions have their downsides: love, if it evolves, can last a lifetime whereas desire is more fleeting. So why stay in a relationship when the fire has gone out of it? Renouncing “for life” is only possible if we acknowledge the nobility of desire. Viewed for too long as a sin, it is now valued, but not always for what it is. Other than in oppressive relationships, desire is a profoundly feminist question. It isn’t simply a physical need or a reproductive necessity, but a crucial experience that fully engages both mind and body. It is intimately bound up with love, and is its new name.
