Passionate Love: A Study of Older African American Couples

Excerpt

Older women are often described as being asexual and uninterested in sex or intimacy (McHugh & Interligi, 2015); while younger couples are seen as having higher levels of passionate love and physical intimacy compared to older couples. Rarely do studies of these women focus on passionate love. Unlike companionate or compassionate love, passionate love refers to a “state of intense longing for union with another” (Hatfield & Rapson, 1993, p. 67). Passionate love and sexual desire are intricately linked (Cannas Aghedu et al., 2020; Bode & Kushnick, 2021; Feybesse & Hatfield). Although a great deal of literature has been devoted to compassionate love among older couples, relatively little is known about passionate love in older couples (Hatfield & Rapson, 1993). Indeed, older couples are typically described as primarily enjoying companionate or compassionate love – a type of love reflecting care and concern for another person – such as behaviors indicative of support for an aging partner (Allen et al., 2018; Carr et al., 2016; Ivenuk et al., 2014; Korporaal et al., 2013; Underwood, 2009). Lack of knowledge about passionate love among older couples could be attributed to the common belief that passionate love declines quickly and is therefore unlikely to be seen in older couples (Elaine et al., 2008). A shortcoming of earlier work is inattention to intersectionality (Gregory, 2019; Pinderhughes, 2004). For example, Pinderhughes (2004) explained that little attention paid to the experiences of older African American couples was because African American marriage could not be understood without taking an in-depth examination of social, economic, racial, and historical factors shaping it. With this consideration in mind, it is possible to assert that contextualizing African American marriages was a daunting task. Nevertheless, the present research strives to accomplish the task by exploring passionate love in African American couples both younger and older. …