As I daze off for about the fifteenth time in my eleven o’clock class, I allow my eyes to wander aimlessly and absorb the cinderblock classroom I’ve been imprisoned in for the past five minutes. I should be immersing myself in the outcomes of the Industrial Revolution, but I cannot help but concentrate on the graffiti on the seat in front of me. The message “love hurts, sex fun” is scribbled across the plastic chair. Have we regressed so much that we simply overlook the love aspect of relationships and head straight to the bedroom?
After spending 45 minutes contemplating this love-stricken message, I decided to put this out there. Has love been put on the back burner and been replaced by meaningless, unattached sex? Is love becoming a fairy tale?
As a young girl, I was always told fairy tales of peasants becoming the object of a prince’s affection, toads transforming into handsome noblemen, all ending with the lovers riding off into the sunset on their white horse to live “happily ever after.” I would like to take this moment to personally thank the brothers Grimm for setting my standard for true love at such an impossible level that I spent the better half of my grammar school days kissing amphibians. As for the men, you can thank the brothers for instilling the Cinderella fantasy inside the hearts of love-struck females across the globe. But as for love and its fairy tale qualities, I shall keep my Cinderella ideals until my knight comes to sweep me off my feet.
Perhaps the media has driven us to be such a sex-obsessed society that forces love and affection to be placed in a category secondary to sexual pleasure. Advertisements with underlying themes of sex, television and film displaying explicit love scenes, books and magazines devoted entirely to the art of lovemaking leads to my assumption that perhaps the media is the driving force behind the degradation of emotions in relationships.
We have been so brainwashed by past relationships that ended badly that it is difficult sometimes to see the good they can bring. Those who have been burned by love often find it difficult to see past the tears, the jealousy and the pain to remember a time when love brought so much joy to their lives. The drama and attention of dysfunctional relationships sell. The functional relationships therefore get no attention. I would like to take a moment to honor all the functional, happy couples who deserve the most attention but receive none. Love is a high-risk emotion that these individuals were willing to take in order to secure happiness with the one they love.
As for the “sex with no love” scenario, I can almost guarantee that anyone who has fallen into an endless string of meaningless hookups not only has a dire need for attention, but often can find themselves yearning for the affection and compassion that is found in good relationships.
I came to the conclusion that perhaps this graffiti artist was someone burned by a past love, never wishing to inflict such pain upon themselves again, therefore leading a life of loveless, unattached sex. I am certain that the continuing of these practices would lead to more than an emotional scarring, but perhaps physical repercussions.
To the graffiti artist in my eleven o’clock class: In the long run, the sex may be fun, but falling in love and having a meaningful relationship is more fun.