Reconsidering the ideology of romantic love: From a perspective of studies on love

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the current state of the ideology of romantic love, so the ideology is relevant to the ideal of the "modern family." We first outline the ideology of romantic love. Then, from an analysis of magazine articles and an analysis of reasons for separation, we offer hypotheses: (1) the ideology of romantic love has been declined since the 1990's and (2) 'the ideology of romantic marriage' has increased during the same period. Lastly, we test and support hypotheses (1) and (2) by analyzing data of a large scale online survey. We also find that the ideology of romantic marriage is supported by young women and people with many opportunities for love. However, even if the ideology of romantic marriage has liberated love, marriage has not been liberated. The hurdles to marriage are still high.