Thursday, March 05, 2009

Love and Sex

Just a note. Getting material together to teach the Sociology of Love and Sex this Spring term. Connecting love and sex is not terribly difficult although a common assumption is that they are always and intimately connected, I don't make that assumption. Love relates to affinity and connectivity so that we can talk about the love of country, the love of scotch, golf, family, children, etc... There is no implication of sex in the definition of love. Love doesn't have to refer to romantic love but when it does it often involves sex too. Sex is an immortality project so that we 'connect' with our ancestors and our progeny. We are part of a long continuum of existence on this planet and beyond. Truth is we often have sex with people we don't care about at all, and sometimes, with other species. So love and sex are not intrinsically connected. When men rape, they don't love the person they are raping.