A cultural change is less a matter of content than a restructuring of relationships between subordinate and dominant elements.

Heterosexual romantic love contains the two most important cultural revolutions of the twentieth century: the individualization of lifestyles and the intensification of emotional life projects; and the economization of social relationships, the pervasiveness of economic models to shape the self and its very emotions.

Romance novels constitute 46 percent of all mass market paperbacks sold in the United States, and according to Harlequin, over half its customers buy an average of 30 novels a month.

Freiheit ist kein abstrakter Wert, sondern eine institutionalisierte Praxis, die Kategorien wie den Willen, die Wahl, das Begehren und die Gefühle prägt.