Hit by Cupid's Arrow: Hidden Violence in Love Metaphors

Authors

Isis Dornbrook, Portland State UniversityFollow

Subjects

metaphor, metaphor analysis, love, violence

Abstract

Love is an emotion that typically brings joy. However, the ways in which society talks about love suggest otherwise. The process of metaphor analysis makes the violence in societal expressions of love salient. Additionally, metaphor analysis shows that violent metaphors can inform the way people interact with one another throughout the stages of relationship formation, such as using metaphors to justify sexual and other types of physical abuse. Thus, this paper argues that metaphors, by shaping our attitudes and expectations about love, sex, and relationships, have observable social and cultural implications.

DOI

10.15760/anthos.2022.11.1.3

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/37828

Recommended Citation

Dornbrook, Isis (2022) "Hit by Cupid's Arrow: Hidden Violence in Love Metaphors," Anthós: Vol. 11: Iss. 1, Article 3.
https://doi.org/10.15760/anthos.2022.11.1.3