@reeshuffled on Github

Detangling Romance and Partnership

Stub • 319 Words • Love/Romance • 04/02/2024

This article is part of the Reimagining Relationships Anthology.

Pages That Link Here:

romance and partnership are different

  • co-parenting, sharing finances, living together all of these things can be done without romance
  • when you start to think about who you want to support and hear about their day everyday and revel in the mundane that goes beyond romance and is more about partnership friendship etc

even contemporary advice acknowledges this

  • “just because you love someone doesn’t mean you’re supposed to be with them”
  • at the core of this advice is the distinction between romantic love and potential for lasting partnership
    • love is not enough for a relationship to work out, so why do we stress this idea of romantic love so much for marriage?
    • people would argue love + something else is what makes it a good partnership, but why not just isolate that something else?

romance is used as a proxy

  • for trust/intimacy of running a household (finances, chores, etc) together
  • for enjoyment during time spent together, of which is very important if you were to live together/spend large amounts of time together

Marriage has historically been about power-ish.

  • The Ancient Greeks and Christians would marry people of similar class to get good life and reproduce
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_ancient_Greece
  • I think it more has to do about the establishment of the family and heritage. Inheritance of power/divine right is very important.
    • Evolution by kin selection would probably agree with this statement

Evolutionarily, it seems like monogamy doesn’t have to be the case.


Other Love/Romance Posts

Is non-monogamous love shallower?

I think that this is a question that monogamous and non-monogamous people have all thought about at least once, so I wanted to dedicate some time thinking about it to settle the question.

Why Do People Stay In Bad Relationships?

Exploring the microeconomics/behavioral economics of staying in a bad relationship.

Re-imagining vs De-centering Romance

Can you re-imagine romance without de-centering it or vice versa?

Romance Is Prescriptive

Romance has prescriptive power which can limit your relationships.

Everything is not romantic

My proposal for getting away from using the word "romance" to avoid conceptual baggage and adding to the weight of the term.

Can we reimagine romance?

The concept of romance doesn't always serve everyone. Can we rehabilitate this concept or are we better off abandoning it entirely?


Comments