What Does it Mean to be “Romantic”? Young Canadian Adults’ Conception of Romance and Romantic Gestures

Piazzesi, Chiara et Blais, Martin (2026). « What Does it Mean to be “Romantic”? Young Canadian Adults’ Conception of Romance and Romantic Gestures ». Youth and Globalization, pp. 1-22.

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Résumé

This paper explores the relevance of romantic ideals and symbols for young adults. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 17 young Canadian adults, we examine their engagement with both romantic and non-traditional practices and ideas for love. Across genders, sexual orientations, and relationship arrangements, most participants self-identified as romantic while maintaining critical distance from traditional romantic clichés. Participants endorsed a model of romance decoupled from grand narratives of destiny, stability, and effortless connection, while remaining closely anchored in everyday cultivation of intimacy, compatibility, and emotional security through romantic gestures. We argue that this construction of romance as a quotidian practice is mainly shaped by two cultural forces: a collective criticism of romance and the therapeutic culture injunction that relationships maintenance requires ongoing “work.” The findings contribute to debates on cultural scripts and therapeutic logics in youth intimate life by recasting romantic ideals as a flexible, reflexive repertoire integrated into diverse relationship forms.

Type:	Article de revue scientifique
Mots-clés ou Sujets:	romantic ideals; intimacy; young adults; therapeutic culture; sociology of love
Unité d'appartenance:	Faculté des sciences humaines > Département de sociologie
Déposé par:	Chiara Piazzesi
Date de dépôt:	28 juill. 2026 08:06
Dernière modification:	28 juill. 2026 08:06
Adresse URL :	https://archipel.uqam.ca/secure/id/eprint/20223

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