The cultural definition of love has changed over time. In Plato’s Symposium, the characters discuss different possible meanings of love. One person advocates for love of a boy over love of women and said it needed to be love of the soul rather than love of the body. While the first is not exactly a popular viewpoint now, the second part seems to resonate more with current perceptions of love. As a culture, we seem to look down upon those who marry for looks or money. Aristophanes’ speech also had aspects that would be familiar to modern readers. He discusses a myth that everyone used to be two bodies attached together and that the gods had split them into two when they had caused some trouble. So, theoretically, everyone is looking for their other half literally. That is an idea that we are familiar with; we are supposed to find our soul mate or other half to spend our life with. However, earlier in this blog, there was a post re-reading this speech, suggesting that perhaps we would be looking for our other half in men and women, no matter our gender, because we do not know the gender of our other half. Should we adopt this view now? It seems to allow for more fluidity in our relationship choices and would leave us more open to different possibilities. After reading the Symposium, I wondered if our understanding of sexuality is too strict. We are stuck on identity categories to define our sexuality: are you straight, gay or bi? Once one defines oneself as one or the other, one probably ignores feelings leading in other directions. In many other aspects of life, we don’t fit into binary categories. For example, while many identify as liberal or conservative, if we looked at their individual values, we would find that many had some view that were liberal and some that were conservative. So, do you think we fit nicely into a category (straight, gay, bi, etc.) or do you think there’s more of a continuum of sexuality, in which we fit somewhere in between all the possibilities?
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