Assumptions of the Romantic Love Myth: Relationships with Sex, Types of Sex and Emotional Relationships, and Sexual Orientation

Front.Sociol., May 20, 2021| https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.621646

Commentary

Romantic love promotes a hegemonic and emotional sex relationship.

The way we think of love involves a greater tolerance for situations of sexual-emotional relations and violence that are an intrinsic part of female subordination and justify the exercise of asymmetrical power relations between men and women.

With the advent of the postmodern phase, a wide variety of objectionable (non-heterosexual) sexual orientations involving heterosexual monogamy were given greater visibility and legitimacy, and new ways of relating emotionally to sex emerged in contrast.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether these different ways of understanding emotional sexual relationships show significant differences with respect to the heterosexual monogamous hegemonic model in the assumption of mythologized ideas of romantic love.

Assuming the myth of romantic love, a cross-sectional study was conducted using a sample of 1,235 individuals who completed a self-administered online questionnaire in which an instrument was created that examined the relationship between gender, sexual orientation, and type of sexual affective relationship, as well as appropriate psychometric properties.

Results showed no significant differences by gender, but there were differences in sexual orientation and relationship type.

It can be shown that heterosexuals, homosexuals, monogamists, and those who have never experienced an emotional sexual relationship are much more likely to undertake the myth of romantic love than those with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual or homosexual.