our present dating habits can feel like
a natural part of existence but in
reality they’ve only been around for a
very short time and we predict won’t
continue for too much longer in a
current form dating has a history which
it pays to try to understand as we
navigate the rituals paradoxical and
often confusing priorities let’s take a
selective look backwards as well as a
peek forwards at the history and future
of dating 27th of March 14 89 Medina del
Campo Spain in a treatise signed between
England and Spain the two-year old Tudor
Prince Arthur is formally engaged to
Catherine of Aragon who is at that point
three years old it’s an extreme example
of what is an entirely normal practice
all over the world in a pre-modern era
relationships are strategic transactions
between families where the feelings of
the couple themselves are of no
importance whatsoever the idea that you
might love let alone be physically
attracted to the person you end up with
would be deemed profoundly irresponsible
61 Amsterdam the Netherlands the
publication of Julie a novel by the
French romantic philosopher jean-jacques
rousseau which becomes the fastest
selling book ever written the novel
tells the story of Julie a beautiful
young woman from an aristocratic family
who is expected to marry someone of her
standing but contrary to all the rules
falls in love with her middle class
teacher Sabu however they cannot get
married because of the differences in
their social status who saw is on the
side of the unhappy couple and his novel
is the first major statement of the idea
that relationships should essentially be
founded on the feelings that exist
between people and have nothing to do
with class lineage or family concerns
but as yet also and his novel scene no
way of up turning the social order you
still marry who your parents and society
tell you but now at least with Wu Sora’s
help you can feel very sorry that you
March 1855 Rome Italy in the major
Italian novel of the 19th century Eva
cherry by Federico D Roberto two
characters Lucrezia and Benedetto are in
love but can’t marry because Lucrezia’s
mother refuses to give her permission on
the grounds of social propriety
crucially the mother is shown to be
old-fashioned and narrow-minded couples
formed by reason are the novelist
suggests a lot less happy than those
guided by instinct the book works with a
growing romantic assumption that
relationships should be based on
sentiment and that the best chances of
finding someone we can get on well with
over a lifetime is not to find out what
that job is or whether they come from a
good family
but whether we experience an
overwhelming physical and emotional
attraction in their presence marriage
1892 London England the most successful
comic play of the year
Charlie’s aren’t turns on the fact that
Charlie has invited Kitty to lunch on a
date but at the last minute learns that
his art won’t be able to join them this
creates a panic because a dating couple
should have a chaperone
an older woman whose presence will
ensure that nothing very intimate can be
said or done Charlie’s solution is to
get a male friend to put on a dress and
impersonate his relative the comedic
atmosphere of the play suggests that the
old rules around dating are firmly on
their way out and are accepted as having
some of the fust enos of a maiden aren’t
the audience is meant to agree that
dating is for the best when couples are
left on their own to discover how they
feel they should even be a kiss at the
19:14 Eastbourne England the young
George Orwell gets into trouble at
school when he is caught reading youths
encounter by Compton McKenzie the first
novel published in England that
describes unsupervised adolescent dating
we’re starting to move beyond the odd
chaste kiss dating starts to be about
June 23rd 1960 Washington’s DC USA the
US Food and Drug Administration approves
the first oral female contraceptive pill
the idea that a date can happily an
uncomplicated ly lead to sex becomes not
only an emotional but now also a
Los Angeles 1998 speed-dating is
invented and the romantic comedy you’ve
got mail the first major film based
around online dating is released both
encourage the idea that it’s important
to search very widely before selecting a
possible partner by now all the elements
of modern dating are finally in place
firstly parents have nothing to do with
it
secondly all considerations of money and
social status are deemed unromantic and
unimportant thirdly you’re meant to be
swiftly emotionally drawn to someone in
order for a relationship to be deemed
legitimate and viable in the long term
fourthly sex is interpreted as a central
part of getting to know someone and
lastly you’re meant to have a lot of
dates and possibly meet quite a few
Horrors on the way before finally and
happily settling down with that
archetypal figure of the modern dating
March 2009 Brussels Belgium the European
Union releases a report that reveals
that 50% of married couples in countries
across the Union end up divorced after
15 years the report quietly raises the
question of whether instinct is really
any better guide to a good conjugal life
than the old parental or societal rules
used to be as well as hinting at how
much more miserable we can end up being
when the sole justification for
relationships is understood to be the
intense emotional and sexual happiness
Singapore May 2075 artificial
intelligence has finally arrived human
nature has at last accurately been
understood and dating as we know it dies
machines now swiftly find for us the
optimal choice of partner for a lifetime
together they know who is available what
our quirks are and who out there can
best complement all the rigmarole of
dating in the Romantic era is done away
with we no longer have to rely on chance
or random encounters we no longer have
to wonder whether we have found the
right person
a machine that we trust as much as we
now trust doctors tells us when we have
located our destiny couples are not
always deliriously happy but they at
least have the satisfaction of knowing
that they are with the person they
should all things being equal be with a
way back in 1489 there wasn’t any choice
for Prince Arthur and Catherine of
Aragon now there is no choice either but
in 2075 it is a psychological machine
that has determined the choice for us
occasionally people get a little
nostalgic and curious about the old
fashioned rather haphazard and sometimes
thrilling romantic way of dating some of
them might dress up and recreate the
ritual like people who nowadays have fun
on weekends trying out what it was like
to row in a longboat or live in a wigwam
all of which should give us a humbling
sense of how particular and complicated
contemporary dating truly is we
shouldn’t blame ourselves if at the end
of yet another barren or ambiguous date
if you want to learn more about love try
our cards that help answer that essential question who should I be with
a natural part of existence but in
reality they’ve only been around for a
very short time and we predict won’t
continue for too much longer in a
current form dating has a history which
it pays to try to understand as we
navigate the rituals paradoxical and
often confusing priorities let’s take a
selective look backwards as well as a
peek forwards at the history and future
of dating 27th of March 14 89 Medina del
Campo Spain in a treatise signed between
England and Spain the two-year old Tudor
Prince Arthur is formally engaged to
Catherine of Aragon who is at that point
three years old it’s an extreme example
of what is an entirely normal practice
all over the world in a pre-modern era
relationships are strategic transactions
between families where the feelings of
the couple themselves are of no
importance whatsoever the idea that you
might love let alone be physically
attracted to the person you end up with
would be deemed profoundly irresponsible
61 Amsterdam the Netherlands the
publication of Julie a novel by the
French romantic philosopher jean-jacques
rousseau which becomes the fastest
selling book ever written the novel
tells the story of Julie a beautiful
young woman from an aristocratic family
who is expected to marry someone of her
standing but contrary to all the rules
falls in love with her middle class
teacher Sabu however they cannot get
married because of the differences in
their social status who saw is on the
side of the unhappy couple and his novel
is the first major statement of the idea
that relationships should essentially be
founded on the feelings that exist
between people and have nothing to do
with class lineage or family concerns
but as yet also and his novel scene no
way of up turning the social order you
still marry who your parents and society
tell you but now at least with Wu Sora’s
help you can feel very sorry that you
March 1855 Rome Italy in the major
Italian novel of the 19th century Eva
cherry by Federico D Roberto two
characters Lucrezia and Benedetto are in
love but can’t marry because Lucrezia’s
mother refuses to give her permission on
the grounds of social propriety
crucially the mother is shown to be
old-fashioned and narrow-minded couples
formed by reason are the novelist
suggests a lot less happy than those
guided by instinct the book works with a
growing romantic assumption that
relationships should be based on
sentiment and that the best chances of
finding someone we can get on well with
over a lifetime is not to find out what
that job is or whether they come from a
good family
but whether we experience an
overwhelming physical and emotional
attraction in their presence marriage
1892 London England the most successful
comic play of the year
Charlie’s aren’t turns on the fact that
Charlie has invited Kitty to lunch on a
date but at the last minute learns that
his art won’t be able to join them this
creates a panic because a dating couple
should have a chaperone
an older woman whose presence will
ensure that nothing very intimate can be
said or done Charlie’s solution is to
get a male friend to put on a dress and
impersonate his relative the comedic
atmosphere of the play suggests that the
old rules around dating are firmly on
their way out and are accepted as having
some of the fust enos of a maiden aren’t
the audience is meant to agree that
dating is for the best when couples are
left on their own to discover how they
feel they should even be a kiss at the
19:14 Eastbourne England the young
George Orwell gets into trouble at
school when he is caught reading youths
encounter by Compton McKenzie the first
novel published in England that
describes unsupervised adolescent dating
we’re starting to move beyond the odd
chaste kiss dating starts to be about
June 23rd 1960 Washington’s DC USA the
US Food and Drug Administration approves
the first oral female contraceptive pill
the idea that a date can happily an
uncomplicated ly lead to sex becomes not
only an emotional but now also a
Los Angeles 1998 speed-dating is
invented and the romantic comedy you’ve
got mail the first major film based
around online dating is released both
encourage the idea that it’s important
to search very widely before selecting a
possible partner by now all the elements
of modern dating are finally in place
firstly parents have nothing to do with
it
secondly all considerations of money and
social status are deemed unromantic and
unimportant thirdly you’re meant to be
swiftly emotionally drawn to someone in
order for a relationship to be deemed
legitimate and viable in the long term
fourthly sex is interpreted as a central
part of getting to know someone and
lastly you’re meant to have a lot of
dates and possibly meet quite a few
Horrors on the way before finally and
happily settling down with that
archetypal figure of the modern dating
March 2009 Brussels Belgium the European
Union releases a report that reveals
that 50% of married couples in countries
across the Union end up divorced after
15 years the report quietly raises the
question of whether instinct is really
any better guide to a good conjugal life
than the old parental or societal rules
used to be as well as hinting at how
much more miserable we can end up being
when the sole justification for
relationships is understood to be the
intense emotional and sexual happiness
Singapore May 2075 artificial
intelligence has finally arrived human
nature has at last accurately been
understood and dating as we know it dies
machines now swiftly find for us the
optimal choice of partner for a lifetime
together they know who is available what
our quirks are and who out there can
best complement all the rigmarole of
dating in the Romantic era is done away
with we no longer have to rely on chance
or random encounters we no longer have
to wonder whether we have found the
right person
a machine that we trust as much as we
now trust doctors tells us when we have
located our destiny couples are not
always deliriously happy but they at
least have the satisfaction of knowing
that they are with the person they
should all things being equal be with a
way back in 1489 there wasn’t any choice
for Prince Arthur and Catherine of
Aragon now there is no choice either but
in 2075 it is a psychological machine
that has determined the choice for us
occasionally people get a little
nostalgic and curious about the old
fashioned rather haphazard and sometimes
thrilling romantic way of dating some of
them might dress up and recreate the
ritual like people who nowadays have fun
on weekends trying out what it was like
to row in a longboat or live in a wigwam
all of which should give us a humbling
sense of how particular and complicated
contemporary dating truly is we
shouldn’t blame ourselves if at the end
of yet another barren or ambiguous date
if you want to learn more about love try
our cards that help answer that essential question who should I be with
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