The Love Issue

Volume 9 Issue 5, January 2010

There is no shortage of cliched, blanket statements about love. Love is a battlefield. Love will save the day. Love is hell. All you need is love. Even if you would go so far as to claim that true love does not exist, there is no denying that there is power in the idea of love, if only because it seems to be everywhere. It’s in pop songs, television shows, films, books. We are constantly bombarded with other peoples’ images of love, lust, obsession, and romance. How, in a world of social constructions, can we determine if ‘true’ love exists, and if so, what it is?

Yes, I see the concept of love overused and diluted in pop songs. I see it used to manipulate or control others, such as in abusive relationships. You don’t have to look further than the new hit series Twilight to see a textbook abusive relationship between a vampire and his girlfriend glorified as our generation’s greatest romance. There is nothing quite as sad as love being proclaimed in systems of oppression; when what should be the purest positive emotion is used to dominate and manipulate others. Despite this, I can proudly say that I believe in love. I believe that it can take many forms, and be embodied and represented in an infinite number of ways. I believe it can appear where it is least expected. I believe it can be used to achieve lasting good–that if there is a greater paradigm shift from living through fear, hate, and greed to living through love and empathy, the world could change dramatically for the better. I believe it is important to constantly remember what you love about life, school, friends, your partner, and most importantly, yourself.

In this issue we have stories of love for a stuffed animal, love for a mythical sea creature, love gone stale, and love gone psychotically violent. These each reveal a little bit of what conceptions of love exist, and how they shape our lives and our culture. Please engage with each article, because love is so much better when experienced, rather than simply observed.

Erin Epp
Editor-in-Chief