Love and Intimacy
In the late nineteenth century. during the Industrial Revolution. people came to view work and home as separate spheres in which different feelings and emotions were appropriate (Coontz, 1992). The public sphere of work-men's sphere-emphasized self reliance and independence. By contrast, the private sphere of the home-women's sphere-emphasized the. giving of services, the exchange of gifts, and love. Accordingly, love and emotions became the domain of women, and work and rationality became the domain of men (Lamanna and Riedrnann, 2009). Although the roles of women and men changed dramatically in the twentieth century, women and men still may not share the same perceptions about romantic love today. According to the sociologist Francesca Candan (1990), women tend \0 express their feelings verbally whereas men tend to express their love through nonverbal actions,
such as running an errand lor someone or repairing a child's broken toy. Love and intimacy are closely intertwined. Intimacy may be psychic nhe sharing of minds"), sexual, \ or both. Although sexuality is an integral part of many intimate relationships. perceptions about sexual activities vary from one culture to the next and from one time period to another. For example. kissing is found primarily in Western cultures; many African and Asian cultures view kissing negatively (Reinisch, 1990). For more than forty years. the work of the biologist Alfred C. Kinsey was considered to be the definitive research on human sexual ty, even though some of his methodology had serious limitations. More recently. the work of Kinsey and his associates has been superseded by the National Health and Social Life Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center' at the University of Chicago al., 1994; Michael et al., 1994). Based on interviews with more than 3.400 men-and women aged 18to 59. this random survey tended to reaffirm the significance of the dominant sexual ideologies. Most respondents reported that they engaged -in heterosexual relationships. although 9 percent of the men said they had at least one homosexual encounter resulting in orgasm. Although 6.2 percent of men and 4.4 percent of women said that they were at least somewhat attracted to others of the same gender. only 2.8 percent of men and 1.4 percent of women identified themselves as gay or lesbian. According to the study. persons who engaged in extramarital sex found their activities to be more thrilling than those with a marital partner. but they also felt more guilt. Persons in sustained relationships such as marriage or cohabitation found sexual activity
the most satisfying emotionally and physically
