Photograph by Jim Harrison Harvard students grapple with the idea of love. Conversations reveal that most believe love is attainable and that there is someone, somewhere, out there who could be a lifelong partner, partly because a new openness and acceptance has emerged around all forms of love. At our formals, tuxedoed male bodies clutching each other and girls in long dresses swaying together in intimate slow dances blend right into the crowd. Until the 1960s, sex was a very risky activity. Few students raise eyebrows when suitemates have overnight guests, even if they become more or less permanent.
Pregnancy is seen more as an educational disruption than a social stigma.
The coeducational freedom of today would seem nightmarish to others. The necessary police regulations would be extremely burdensome. Popular culture has given us expectations for true love and great sex. But as Harvard students and the larger society have discovered, sex cannot replace love. Harvard students in general are perfectionist and risk averse.