The cheesy idealism of the movie draws snickers and sneers. Books Mentioned in this Issue Love Story debuted when coed dormitories and classrooms were transforming Harvard, Radcliffe, and the relationships between the sexes. Today's students have a savvier, more cynical perspective. The post-Radcliffe equality of the sexes reflects a reality of new uncertainties in the world of courtship, where Harvard women are equals both on paper and by experience. The line between platonic friendships and romantic relationships is blurred.
Monogamous love seems all the more elusive even as it becomes more critical.
This is a generation that grew up under the umbra of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, where condoms are distributed like mints during Freshman Week, and where a sharp rise in chlamydia cases in the student body last year alarmed University Health Services. We are also the children of divorce. So we seek long-term relationships, but realize their fragility. Berta Greenwald Ledecky Undergraduate Fellows. Photograph by Jim Harrison Harvard students grapple with the idea of love.