Between family and love: gender tensions between lovers

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show the ways in which male dominance is expressed in long-term clandestine love relationships. To this end, fifty-five biographical interviews were conducted and recorded in France. Each of them lasted between three and six hours.

People were selected who were having, or had previously had, an extramarital affair for more than two years on a regular basis.

This research shows that these relationships are archaic forms of expression of men’s symbolic domination, in particular through the emotional appropriation of women in a context which escapes contemporary norms of gender equality and, on the contrary, values virility for both women and men.