Computers have changed not just the way we work but the way we love. Falling in and out of love, flirting, cheating, even having sex online have all become part of the modern way of living and ...loving. Yet we know very little about these new types of relationship. How is an online affair where the two people involved may never see or meet each other different from an affair in the real world? Is online sex still cheating on your partner? Why do people tell complete strangers their most intimate secrets? What are the rules of engagement? Will online affairs change the monogamous nature of romantic relationships? These are just some of the questions Professor Aaron Ben Ze'ev, distinguished writer and academic, addresses in this 2004 book, a full-length study of love online. Accessible, shocking, entertaining, enlightening, this book will change the way you look at cyberspace and love forever.
Power is an important element in dating relationships. Using the 'power within relationships theory' and 'equity theory' this research examined perceived relationship power in a sample of 1098 ...undergraduates at two universities. Three power profiles were identified based on whether the respondents reported having less power (10.8%), equal power (69.8%), or more power (19.4%) in their current relationship. Having equal or more power generally had positive associations, such as higher levels of personal happiness, a better relationship with one's mother, greater trust in one's current partner, and more happiness in one's current dating relationship. There was little evidence that having equal power was advantageous compared to having more power, though those who reported equal relationship power were less likely to have lied to a past partner. Implications and limitations of the data are suggested.
China has experienced rapid economic and social change since the beginning of the 'Open Door' policy in 1978. Yet, at the same time, the legacy of the Mao era remains and elements of Confucianism ...continue to exist in the reform period. As a result, traditional views concerning gender roles and sexual attitudes and practices persist. Based on interviews with 43 women in Shanghai, this book investigates the way in which young women, born under the one-child policy in China, consider sexuality and intimate relations in the twenty-first century. Covering their thoughts and views on issues such as sex education, the rise of 'dating culture' and 'ideal' husbands, it is argued that reform China offers young women a series of contradictory expectations of sex and relationships. Despite the Party-State rhetoric of equality, participant narratives ultimately highlight the limited discourse of desire and sexual autonomy available to young women, the prevalence of essentialist notions of femininity and masculinity and the continuing norm of marriage as the only legitimate context for female sexual expression.
As a valuable contribution to the literature focusing on attitudes towards sexuality and relationships in post-Mao China, this title will be useful for students of Chinese studies, women's studies, gender studies and sociology.
Within the span of almost ten years, phone dating apps have transformed the dating scene by normalizing and, according to some voices, gamifying the digital quest for a partner. Despite amplified ...discussion on how swipe-based apps damage the fabric of intimate ties, scientific accounts on whether they have led to different relationship patterns are missing. Using 2018 survey data from Switzerland, this study provides a rich overview of couples who met through dating apps by addressing three main themes: 1) family formation intentions, 2) relationship satisfaction and individual well-being, and 3) assortative mating. The data indicate that in Switzerland, dating apps have recently taken over as main online dating context. Results further show that couples formed through mobile dating have stronger cohabiting intentions than those formed in non-digital settings. Women who found their partner through a dating app also have stronger fertility desires and intentions than those who found their partner offline. Generally, there are no differences between couples initiated through dating apps and those initiated elsewhere regarding relationship and life satisfaction. Though more data are needed to capture the full range of users' romantic and sexual experiences, current results mitigate some of the concerns regarding the short-term orientation or the poor quality of relationships formed through mobile dating. Findings finally suggest that dating apps play an important role in altering couple composition by allowing for more educationally diverse and geographically distant couples.
Family photography is now more popular than ever thanks to technological advances which allow the storing and sharing of vast numbers of pictures. Here, case study material drawn from the UK offers a ...deeper understanding of both domestic family photographs and their public display. Recent work in material culture studies, geography, and anthropology is used to approach photographs as objects embedded in social practices, which produce specific social positions, relations and effects.
During the fifteen years prior to the first publication of this book in 2003, existing models of linguistic politeness generated a huge amount of empirical research. Using a wide range of data from ...real-life speech situations, this introduction to politeness breaks away from the limitations of those models and argues that the proper object of study in politeness theory must be commonsense notions of what politeness and impoliteness are. From this, Watts argues, a more appropriate model, one based on Bourdieu's concept of social practice, is developed. The book aims to show that the terms 'polite' and 'impolite' can only be properly examined as they are contested discursively. In doing so, 'polite' and 'impolite' utterances inevitably involve their users in a struggle for power. A radically new account of linguistic politeness, the book will appeal to students and researchers in a wide range of disciplines, in linguistics and the social sciences.
Gender and Politeness challenges the notion that women are necessarily always more polite than men as much of the language and gender literature claims. Sara Mills discusses the complex relations ...between gender and politeness and argues that although there are circumstances when women speakers, drawing on stereotypes of femininity to guide their behaviour, will appear to be acting in a more polite way than men, there are many circumstances where women will act just as impolitely as men. The book aims to show that politeness and impoliteness are in essence judgements about another's interventions in an interaction and about that person as whole, and are not simple classifications of particular types of speech. Drawing on the notion of community of practice Mills examines the way that speakers negotiate with what they perceive to be gendered stereotypes circulating within their particular group.
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