Radical Individualism
Radical individualism may have a controversial impact on social mechanisms and norms related to the issues of the formation of family and intimate relationships. Individualism itself may be considered to have a positive effect on the well-being of the individual. However, exaggeration of the importance of individual priorities before the community and social aspects might not have positive consequences. Such consequences may include the development of the culture of narcissism, caused by the significant focus on the self. Even though individualism plays a crucial role in the establishment of self-identification, holding of opinions, and freedom of speech and self-expression, its radical form may cause serious damage to the health of the community.
Societal attitudes to the subject of intimate relations have undergone a dramatic change over the last few decades. People gained wider opportunities to express freely their intimate preferences and values. Such changes were contributed to by various aspects of social transformations, sexual education, and parental guidance. As people may be considered both the products and the producers of their social and cultural lives, these changes represent the result of a constant relationship between the individuals and the communities they belong to. The establishment of personal views on intimate relations is conducted through the evaluation of ideas broadcast to the individual by various social agents such as family, school, media, social groups, government, or religion. Personally, I believe that family plays the most significant role as a socializing agent in regards to intimate relations. Parents may often be viewed as relationship role models or even as a lesson on what not to do. Nevertheless, it may be the parental responsibility to adequately educate an individual about intimate relation goals and values.
Personal Experience
My personal experience involves the high participation of the family as a socialization agent. The main ideas referred to intimate relationships were the importance of freedom of choice as well as the crucial role of individual values and needs. Family and relationships were presented to me through numerous socializing agents with opposing views. As humanity lives in the informational age, the influence of media cannot be overemphasized. There are many who have strict traditional and sometimes old-fashioned views on the issue and many others who pursue a more modern approach to relationships. The variety and diversity of sources make it impossible to produce a strict selection based on the type of information. Therefore, family and intimate relations were presented to me in diverse forms and through controversial views, which allowed me to choose carefully from a wide spectrum of concepts. Parental guidance and advice as well as my personal evaluation helped me to form my individual values and moral norms regarding the issue.
There might not be an objectively right way to form a personal opinion on any issue and particularly on the subject of relationships. People can have strictly traditional families, open relationships, homosexual or heterosexual intimate relations, or no intimate relations at all. Any of the above-mentioned and many other examples may be considered appropriate if they imply mutual respect and comfort involved individuals. According to Illouz (2019), love may be miserable and suffering is frequently viewed as an inseparable part of relationships. Such an approach to the issue means that the problem may not be in the form of the relationship but in the individual attitude to the matter of intimate relations. As a child of homosexual parents, I had an opportunity to view family values and goals from non-average angles, determining specific but crucial aspects. I believe that any form of relationship may be considered healthy as long as it does not threaten the rights, freedom, or desires of partners.
Fortunately, by trial and error, society is transforming to what I believe is a better state of itself. Some cases that are considered normal and appropriate to most people nowadays may have been viewed as abnormal just half a century ago. Modern society provides wider opportunities for self-identity and self-expression, not limiting individuals to common norms that may have destructive and harmful effects. Nowadays people and I are able to express themselves freely without fear of not being understood and accepted by society. Such ability is an example of a significant difference between my experience and the issues described in Fun Home. In the mentioned graphic memoirs author’s dad could not openly identify his intimate preferences, making him uncontended with life (Bechdel, 2015). Such constant internal contradictions caused irreparable harm to the whole family and even led to the dad committing suicide (Bechdel, 2015). Even though modern society still has many issues related to discrimination and conviction, it has undergone considerable changes, which brought tolerance and acceptance to a significantly higher degree.
Family and Intimate Relations Role in Individual Formation
As I already mentioned, I believe that the social practice of family and intimate relations has considerable value in information and information about myself. For example, having homosexual parents makes me take more various and sometimes controversial points of view into consideration. Any relationships play crucial roles in the process of socialization and self-development. The ideas of love and romance significantly influence the overall set of moral norms and values of a certain person. Studying such issues as unequal pleasure in close relations makes it possible to analyze more global aspects of inequality and discrimination (Wade, 2018). Romantic relationships represent an utterly important element of human lives; hence, a detailed analysis of such relations makes it possible to better understand various sociological phenomena.
In addition, family relations have an immeasurable impact on the process of self-identification, as parents educate people about the basic life values, which should be followed. For example, a highly conservative family may impose quite strict world views, which conflict with the internal identities of the individual. Such internal controversy may cause serious negative consequences to the individual’s well-being, and mental, and even physical health. I think it is important not to force an individual to adhere to a certain limited way of thinking. Taking all the possible points of view, being provided with the freedom of choice and establishing own opinion may be the key to proper self-identification.
Personally, I already determined a list of behavioral norms regarding the issue of intimate relations. I strongly agree with Illouz (2019) stating that love principles have undergone immeasurable transformations over time. The role of sacrifice and suffering for the sake of love is not as culturally significant as it was. Moreover, sexuality and physical appeal are becoming more important criteria for choosing a partner than ever. I do believe that the decrease in suffering and misery of love in modern society is a positive change, yet I do not completely support the increase of significance of sexuality. In my opinion, physical contact is a pleasurable by-product of love but not its main purpose. Such an attitude may encourage me to concentrate more on my internal qualities rather than external characteristics in the process of self-formation. Conclusively, intimate relations are an inseparable part of a human’s self-identity as through perception and interactions with other people individuals may better understand their inner conflicts and establish their priorities.
References
Bechdel, A. (2015). Fun home: A family tragicomic. Houghton Mifflin.
Illouz, E. (2019). Why love hurts: A sociological explanation. Polity Press.
Wade, L. (2018). American hookup: The new culture of sex on campus. W.W. Norton & Company.