Fragile Mobility & Fragile Stability: Dating in Eastern Kentucky

• In Event: 1451 - Open Refereed Paper Roundtable
  In Refereed Roundtable (100 min): Table 4: Modern Relationships

Abstract

Research on heterosexual dating and marriage has emphasized that women’s economic stability is enhanced by marriage to stably employed men. I use interviews with 24 women in Eastern Kentucky to argue that in economically disadvantaged communities, characterized by high rates of substance use, unemployment, and disability, romantic or sexual engagement with men more often threatens women’s economic security and physical and mental health. Nearly all of my participants described dating as a risky paradox. Finding a stable man could enhance security but engaging with men at all created risks of sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and drains on material resources.

Author

• Lanora Johnson, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor