Love in the Time of COVID-19: The Social Dimensions of Intimate Life under Lockdown

Abstract

Although popular media across the United States reported that the coronavirus disease 2019 COVID pandemic incited dramatic transformations in personal relationships, identities, and practices, little sociological research examines these developments. What exists elaborates the “how” and “how much” of sex, the frequency of sexual conduct, and changes in the patterning of sexual behavior. In this study of the intimate trajectories of 46 young adults, conducted during the height of U.S. quarantine restrictions in 2020 and early 2021, the authors explore the “whys” of sex. They find that the exogenous force of the pandemic profoundly altered individual relationship trajectories, prompted sexual introspection projects, shifted understandings of sexual risk, and promoted new modes of intimacy. These findings suggest that pandemic life reached deep into subjective self-understandings and ways of relating to others. They also reveal the benefits of foregrounding cultural meanings over behaviors, changes in thoughts over actions, and social processes over individual outcomes.

Subjective destitution, love, and rebellion in pandemic times: Theorizing with Hot Skull

“…Others reached new depths of joy or sorrow, via their significantly increased time now spent in lockdown with family members or lovers. Others turned to increased media consumption, as a salve for the brutalities of the world outside (see Borsa et al, 2023;Forrester, 2021;Wolfe, 2022;Z ̌ižek, 2020a). In rare instances these issues can overlap, and the viewing of a provocative film or television series can offer us mental space to reflect on our subjective capacities to alter the present state of affairs, in politics, and in love.…”