The Meaning of Love

Your goal is to educate the class on the topic of love. You may use whatever methods you choose--such as initiating a discussion, sharing and discussing a short story or newspaper article, etc.--as long as there are no animal sacrifices, and you respect everyone’s beliefs and privacy.

Your "source" for this presentation is an excerpt from Shere Hite’s Women and Love. In your presentation you should go beyond the journal assignment and develop a definition of love. This may consist of dividing different types of love into categories. You may use your source to communicate the different ways that women and men experience love. You should do a quick study of male- vs. female-intended audience magazines. Pick up three copies of GQ and three copies of Cosmopolitan and count the number of articles in each devoted to some aspect of love. Are there the same number of articles on the topic in each one? Are the goals of the articles the same? Do they define love the same? What generalities can you share with the class based on your findings?

At the conclusion of the seminar, explain to the class what you’ve concluded about the nature of love. Do women feel it differently than men? Are women naturally pre-disposed to look for it? Does society influence people’s ideas about what love is? Is love used to keep people (men and women) functioning in their traditional roles?