A favor del amor

Since always, the fact of intensely experiencing a passionate love has been considered a black mark when it comes to assessing the intellectual capacity of a woman, a fact that, on the other hand, does not occur in the case of men. Many criticized, for example, Mary Wollstonecraft -the author of The Rights of Woman- for having succumbed to love for a man to the point of twice attempting suicide; On the other hand, Petrarch was able to dedicate his whole life to sighing for Laura, without this diminishing his prestige as a poet. The erotic exploits of men are a plus in the consideration of their neighbor; the adventures of women are slips that can distract them from their professional tasks... The curious thing is that this prejudice is not installed only in the mind of the man, but has been cultivated by the feminist movement, which saw the heterosexual relationship as an experience close to rape and viewed any romantic relationship between a man and a woman as a sign of weakness. Today, in the 21st century, the fear of illness and the taste for efficiency have reduced the outburst of love to a controlled and often boring game, which can last one night or extend into a life as a couple dictated by good sense and calculation. Where is then the madness of love? In line with the theories and experiences that the Western tradition has left us -from Dante and Shakespeare to Emily Dickinson and Simone Beauvoir-, alternating abstract concepts and notes from real life, Nehring proposes a new approach to passion, understood as a struggle vital that makes us grow as individuals. Whether we are men or women, this loving madness that, contrary to what is usually said, makes us clairvoyant with respect to the other, is finally one of the new and beautiful claims of our century.