Love & Sex

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Culture of Love

Embraceable you: Auguste Rodin's 'The Kiss', 1901-4

The great tradition

Our attitudes towards love and sex have been shaped by centuries of erotic cultural outpouring. The result, argues Boyd Tonkin, is a curious ambivalence
From Love and Sex - a free glossy magazine with the print edition.

Inside Culture of Love

Sleeping Around: Eternal Sunshine?

Thursday, 23 October 2008

Apparently, scientists may soon be able to erase fear and trauma from patients' minds. The technology is meant to help people cure phobias such as a fear of spiders, but my mind immediately turned to wiping out of the pain of failed relationships, 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'-style.

Charlotte Roche: 'When it comes to sex and sexuality ? I think virtually every kind of taboo is wrong'

Taboo-busting writer sets Germany abuzz

Friday, 17 October 2008

Tony Paterson: Scandalous novel about sex, personal hygiene and almost every conceivable part of the female anatomy has taken the Teutonic literary world by storm.

Embraceable you: Auguste Rodin's 'The Kiss', 1901-4

The great tradition

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Our attitudes towards love and sex have been shaped by centuries of erotic cultural outpouring. The result, argues Boyd Tonkin, is a curious ambivalence
From Love and Sex - a free glossy magazine with the print edition.

The man who invented sex

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Harold Robbins was the man who invented sex. Not the actual act, nor its literary depiction, but the way it was represented in mass-market fiction. The "godfather of the airport novel" if not the creator of the bonkbuster changed the face of post-war popular fiction with steamy tales such as The Betsy, The Lonely Lady, The Pirate and his 1961 classic, The Carpetbaggers.

Romance inc.: Why the love industry flourishes

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Without our insatiable appetite for romantic love, a large part of the mainstream economy would bump and grind to a halt. Luckily, finds Sophie Morris, the downturn hasn't affected the love industry yet

Sleeping around: Romantic movies have a lot to answer for

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

'I spent the flight sipping champagne and fantasising about my dress'

The facts of life: the culture of love

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

In 2002, the American Film Institute named the 1942 classic Casablanca as the greatest movie love story. Gone With The Wind came in second place, followed by West Side Story.

The art of love: Jean-Antoine Watteau

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Classical summer of love

'The Judgement of Paris' by Rubens

A brief cultural history of sex

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Some things never change but sex isn't one of them. Marcus Field looks back on some surprising episodes in the centuries-long evolution of Western sexual attitudes, from the ancient Greeks to the present day

Questionnaire: Are you culturally compatible?

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

The single most important rule governing relationship success is the Law of Similarity. Contrary to popular folk wisdom, opposites do NOT attract as much as "similars". The more similar you are to your partner the more compatible you are, and the better your chances of a healthy, happy, long-term relationship. This rule applies even at the most basic level of physical attributes such as finger length, right up to the level of social and cultural attributes. In this quiz we'll look at some of the most important dimensions of compatibility: those involving your beliefs, values and interests. Pick your answers to each question, ask your partner to do the same, apply the scoring grid (below) and then compare notes.

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