Happily Ever After? Exploring U.S. Collegiate Women’s Understandings of Love as Impermanent and Timeless in the Age of Capitalism

Abstract

This study examines the impact of popular cultural tropes and contemporary ideologies on U.S. collegiate women’s constructions of romantic love and marriage. Although research shows that shifts in the public sphere intimately affect the private realm, little is known regarding how young women negotiate concurrent romantic ideals and capitalist notions of romance. Based on interviews with 30 collegiate women, we argue that women’s negotiations of romantic love and marriage can be understood through conceptualizations of time, including investment of time, timelessness, and envisioning the future despite impermanence. Our findings suggest a love paradox, in that participants define love as controllable, reflecting late capitalistic terms of love as work and individuals’ responsibilities, and uncontrollable, as love is also deemed magical and timeless. Ambiguities thus arise from perceptions of instability, with women desiring idealized, everlasting love yet remaining doubtful that it can come to fruition in a rationalized, unstable time.

Keywords

late capitalism love marriage relationships media gender

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aronson

Pamela

. 2008. “The Markers and Meanings of Growing Up: Contemporary Young Women’s Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood.” Gender & Society 22(1):56–82.

Bachen

Christine M.

Illouz

Eva

. 1996. “Imagining Romance: Young people’s Cultural Models of Romance and Love.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 13(4):279–308.

Barros-Gomes

Patricia

Baptist

Joyce

. 2014. “Black Women’s Ambivalence about Marriage: A Voice-Centered Relational Approach.” Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy 13(4):284–311.

Beck

Ulrich

. 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Bellah

Robert N.

Madsen

Richard

Sullivan

William M.

Swidler

Ann

Tipton

Steven M.

1996. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.

Bemis

Bethanee

. 2017. “How Disney Came to Define What Constitutes the American Experience.” Smithsonian, January 3. Retrieved January 27, 2018 (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-disney-came-define-what-constitutes-american-experience-180961632/).

Cancian

Francesca M.

1987. Love in America: Gender and Self-development. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Cerulo

Karen A.

1997. “Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions.” Annual Review of Sociology 23:385–409.

Charmaz

Kathy

. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis. London, England: Sage.

10.

Christensen

Linda

. 1991. “Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us.” Rethinking Schools 5(4):67–70.

11.

Clawson

Laura

. 2005. “Cowboys and Schoolteachers: Gender in Romance Novels, Secular and Christian.” Sociological Perspectives 48(4):461–79.

12.

Cook

Lindsey

. 2015. “For Richer, Not Poorer: Marriage and the Growing Class Divide.” US News & World Report, October 26. Retrieved February 11, 2017 (https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/10/26/marriage-and-the-growing-class-divide).

13.

Currier

Danielle M.

2013. “Strategic Ambiguity: Protecting Emphasized Femininity and Hegemonic Masculinity in the Hookup Culture.” Gender & Society 27(5):704–27.

14.

Damaske

Sarah

. 2011. “A ‘Major Career Woman?’ How Women Develop Early Expectations about Work.” Gender & Society 25(4):409–30.

15.

DiPirro

Danielle Marie

. 2007. From Biting the Apple to Breaking the Spell: Analyzing Love in the Disney Princess Collection. MA thesis, California State University, Fullerton, CA.

16.

Dowd

James J.

Pallotta

Nicole R.

2000. “The End of Romance: The Demystification of Love in the Postmodern Age.” Sociological Perspectives 43(4):549–80.

17.

Duggan

Lisa

. 2003. The Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

18.

Ellison

Christopher G.

Wolfinger

Nicholas H.

Ramos-Wada

Aida I.

2013. “Attitudes Toward Marriage, Divorce, Cohabitation, and Casual Sex among Working-Age Latinos: Does Religion Matter?” Journal of Family Issues 34(3):295–22.

19.

Galloway

Lauren

Engstrom

Erika

Emmers-Sommer

Tara M.

2015. “Does Movie Viewing Cultivate Young People’s Unrealistic Expectations about Love and Marriage?” Marriage and Family Review 51:687–712.

20.

Giddens

Anthony

. 1991. Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

21.

Giddens

Anthony

. 1993. The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Oxford, England: Polity Press.

22.

Gillis

1996. A World of Their Own Making: Myth, Ritual and the Quest for Family Values. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

23.

Giroux

Henry A.

Pollock

Grace

. 2010. The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

24.

Gomery

Doulgas

. 1994. “Disney’s Business History: A Reinterpretation.” Pp. 71–86 in Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom, edited by Smoodin

New York: Routledge.

25.

Harris

Anita

. 2004. Future Girl: Young Women in the 21st Century. New York: Routledge.

26.

Heffner

Veronica

. 2011. “From Love at First Sight to Soul Mate: Romantic Ideals in Popular Films and Their Association with Young People’s Beliefs about Relationships.” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

27.

Holland

Dorothy C.

Eisenhart

Margaret A.

1990. Educated in Romance: Women, Achievement, and College Culture. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

28.

Illouz

Eva

. 1991. “Reason within Passion: Love in Women’s Magazines.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 8(3):231–48.

29.

Illouz

Eva

. 1997. Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

30.

Ingraham

Chrys

. 2009. White Weddings: Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture. New York: Routledge Press.

31.

Jacquet

Susan E.

Surra

Catherine A.

2001. “Parental Divorce and Premarital Couples: Commitment and Other Relationship Characteristics.” Journal of Marriage and Family 63(3):627–38.

32.

Lewin

Philip

Williams

J. Patrick

. 2009. “The Ideology and Practice of Authenticity in Punk Subculture.” Pp. 65–83 in Authenticity in Culture, Self, and Society, edited by Vannini

Williams

Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

33.

Lystra

Karen

. 1989. Searching the Heart: Women, Men, and Romantic Love in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press.

34.

Orengo-Aguaya

Rosaura E.

2015. “Mexican American and Other Hispanic Couples’ Relationship Dynamics: A Review to Inform Interventions Aimed at Promoting Healthy Relationships.” Marriage and Family Review 51(7):633–67.

35.

Piorkowski

Geraldine K.

2008. Adult Children of Divorce: Confused Love Seekers. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

36.

Radway

Janice A.

1984. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

37.

Ross

Terris

Kena

Grace

Rathbun

Amy

Ramani

Angelina Kewal

Zhang

Jijun

Kristapovich

Paul

Manning

Eileen

. 2012. “Higher Education: Gaps in Access and Persistence Study.” NCES 2012–046, U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

38.

Simon

Robin W.

Eder

Donna

Evans

Cathy

. 1992. “The Development of Feeling Norms Underlying Romantic Love Among Adolescents.” Social Psychology Quarterly 55(1):29–46.

39.

Stacey

Judith

. 1990. Brave New Families: Stories of Domestic Upheaval in Late Twentieth Century America. New York: Basic Books.

40.

Swidler

Ann

. 1980. “Love and Adulthood in American Culture.” Pp. 120–47 in Themes of Work and Love in American Culture, edited by Smelser

N. J.

Erikson

E. H

. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

41.

Swidler

Ann

. 2001. Talk of Love: How Culture Matters. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

42.

Tanner

Litsa Renee

Haddock

Shelley A.

Zimmerman

Toni Schindler

Lund

Lori K.

2003. “Images of Couples and Families in Disney Feature-Length Animated Films.” The American Journal of Family Therapy 31(5):355–73.

43.

Taylor

Charles

. 1992. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

44.

Taylor

Paul

2015. The Next America. New York: Pew Research Center.

45.

Turner

Jonathan H.

Stets

Jan E.

2005. The Sociology of Emotions. New York: Cambridge University Press.

46.

White

Lynn

. 1999. “The Effects of Parental Divorce and Remarriage on Parental Support for Adult Children.” Journal of Family Issues 13(2):234–50.

47.

Wilkins

Amy C.

Dalessandro

Cristen

. 2013. “Monogamy Lite: Cheating, College, and Women.” Gender & Society 27(5):728–51.

48.

Wood

Juliet T.

2003. “Talk of Love: How Culture Matters.” Canadian Journal of Communication 28(1). Retrieved January 22, 2017 (http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/1353/1417).