Only three things are truly important in a marriage: you, your beloved and your love for each other. All the same, there are a lot more factors at play in the background.
Marriage as ritual
Marriage is very much a ritual, with all the dramatic symbolism that goes with it. In the past especially, marriage underlined certain fundamental institutional values, such as monogamy and the conviction that heterosexuality is the norm. Rituals thus generate collective sentiments too: they encourage people to conform to dominant standards and values.
Marriage as fairytale
Marriage can be a Disney fairytale too, or at least it can look like one. On 2 February 2002, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands tied the knot with Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti. The wedding was broadcast live, with six million viewers glued to their televisions. The media meticulously recorded every moment of the ritual, memorably zooming in as Máxima shed a tear. The pictures played perfectly on the audience’s emotions, inspiring us to get married too.
Marriage as status symbol
Besides being one of the greatest love clichés, weddings are also a significant status symbol. We’re a couple and everyone should know it! Marriage as the ultimate way of announcing and crowning your love by throwing a party for all your loved ones. A wedding also lets you show that you have plenty of time, space and money – that you’ve successfully completed this level in life.
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Passion – Love play
The appearance of sex toys tells us a lot about how people felt about lust and gratification at a particular time. About the taboos that might still attach to them. And about the future of sex and the ideals of designers.
Passion – The kiss
Your first kiss. You never forget it. No matter how sweet, sloppy or bad it was. After that, there’s no stopping you: on average you’ll spend 20,000 minutes of your life kissing.
Passion – Perfectible body
Not happy with your body? Then do something about it. That seems to be the credo of our age, with its obsession with perfect bodies. But is the body really so perfectible?
Passion – The body
The contents of Bouquet romantic novels might still leave something to the imagination, but not so their covers: this is the image of the ‘ideal man’. What does it say about our perceptions?
Passion – Romantic fiction
Seven Nights with the Sheikh, A Kiss in the Moonlight, An Heir for the King: the titles of romantic fiction in the world-famous Bouquet series have always appealed to the imagination. Guilty pleasures full of desire, temptation and happy endings are still extremely popular.
Falling in Love – Making it happen
Butterflies in your stomach, unable to eat a thing, constantly daydreaming and checking your phone every five minutes to see if you’ve received a new message: falling in love is magical.
Bonding – Parenthood
For centuries being a mum or dad was not a choice at all, simply how things were ‘supposed to be’. The way parenthood itself is viewed has also changed over the years.
Bonding – Family of choice
In addition to their biological family, many people have one they’ve chosen for themselves: people you’re not related to, people who understand, help and love you.
Bonding – The Couple Look
See them whizzing across the city on their fast bikes: his a men’s model, hers a woman’s. Both wrapped in a puffer jacket and with matching trainers. The dreary ‘ANWB couple’ in trendy jackets.
Love, designed
We’ve all grown up with stories and clichés that have unconsciously influenced our image of love. Love, designed explores these stereotypes and shows how design guides the way we both seek and ‘consume’ love.
