Global Journal of Human Social Science, C: Sociology and Culture, Volume 22 Issue 6

Romantic Love and Violence against Women from a Gender Approach Camila Lucía Torrico Cano α & Dolly Alcoba σ Keywords: romantic love, holistic love, young people attending university, gender roles and stereotypes and violence against women (VAW). I. I ntroduction ove is part of the life of human beings, it has been crucial since the beginning of time and it has been addressed by different disciplines. There are different types of love, one of these being romantic love, which has become a potential source of danger, especially for women (Gualano, 2018). Society pressures people to think that love should be above all else and that having a partner is a necessity, and while love itself is a necessity, the problem lies in the fact that we are not even talking about a holistic or healthy love, but about a model of romantic love that perpetuates erroneous and dangerous ideas, since this model, not only favors inequality, affecting both men and women, but it is also a real source of danger. In the traditional romantic love model, men's emotions are not well seen or understood, although they exist, it is often assumed that these emotions cannot or should not be shown, since that would imply weakness. So, what should men do with these emotions? It is clear that if these emotions and feelings are not expressed, it is very difficult to manage them correctly. As a consequence, this could lead to gender-based violence, since masculinity, in order to be reaffirmed, would lead to the abuse of women to legitimize itself (Herrera, 2012). It is estimated that at least one in three women in their lifetime has suffered violence, especially from their partners. Worldwide speaking in 2017, more than a third of women were murdered by their current or former partners. According to Miranda (2019) from the BBC ( The British Broadcasting Corporation ), Bolivia ranked first in femicides in all of South America; this year, more than 70 femicides were documented in the country and according to data from the Special Force to Combat Violence (FELCV) the reported cases of violence against women increase visibly every year; in 2018 more than 38. 000 incidents of aggression against women were reported. That is alarming and also raises the question of the number of cases which were not reported. It should be taken into account that this problem is even more serious than what is reflected in the data verified and obtained by various organizations and institutions. There are worldwide studies that address these two topics, which show the importance that society gives to romantic love , its myths and how these play a role in maintaining violent relationships and how society accepts this violence. How the traditional concept of love and representations of idealized love maintain a view that keeps people confined within the myths of romantic love (García, Hernández y Monter, 2019). A model of love that plays a determinant role in how couple-relationships are lived and how inequalities in regards to power are promoted and how these, contribute to the maintenance and normalization of VAW. As mentioned by Cerro y Vives (2019), this is in part due to the internalized gender roles and stereotypes that, together with the myths of romantic love, sustain said model of love. One of the possible explanations as to why VAW occurs, especially from partners (from the gender approach), could be that VAW is caused by inequitable power relations. It is important to address this during emerging adulthood or youth, (in this case university students), since as mentioned (Craig, 2009), it is at this stage that different changes arise in human beings, not only physically and socially but also cognitive and emotional; It is defined as a step ahead of adolescence, but also one before adulthood as such, being a period of transition, where stability and self-affirmation are sought after. That’s why in this context, the information collected is meant to shed a light on this problem, to analyze it and understand it, not just as passive spectators or based on mere statistical data. Thus, giving it a voice and analyzing how these concepts are construed or formed, because the goal is not just to impose different types of social punishment on the perpetrators or create more laws, but to understand the root of the problem, how it arises and how we can have a good understanding of it. L © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue VI Version I 9 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 C Author α σ : Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Humanas y de la Educación-Universidad La Salle Bolivia. e-mails: camila.ltorricoc@gmail.com, do.alcoba@gmail.com Abstract- Romantic love is dangerous for many women. Violence against them (VAW) and femicides increase and are mostly perpetrated by their (ex) partners. The Objective of the present study was to describe the personal interpretations of Romantic Love and VAW of men and women who go to the University in La Paz; the study has a qualitative approach of the explanatory descriptive type, based on focus groups and a scale. Despite sharing some indicators, men and women interpret them differently, but these respond to the traditional image of romantic love, where VAW is normalized, so a possible way to counteract it is by deconstructing romantic love, and the gender stereotypes that they promote.