Culture of Love #1: Desire for Communication and Empathy

Dating and love – that can be very beautiful but also very exhausting. Beautiful because you can meet a person who inspires you, with whom you can exchange closeness and intimacy. Exhausting because we live in a society that is becoming increasingly fast-paced, with sexist and racist stereotypes and norms. What are the experiences of people with migration and refugee experience in Germany when it comes to dating and love? Two people meet and thus also two (cultural) identities with different expectations, socialisations and experiences. Different wishes, freedoms and sometimes also languages. This can lead to misunderstandings, prejudices, new insights and commonalities. In our series “Culture of Love” we want to find out more.

In Mexico Stef (29) grew up in a catholic-conservative society. Even though none of her family members were religious themselves, Stef attended a Christian school, as they offered good education. Sex education at the school however put her off from any kind of sexual intimacy and made her want to stay a child forever. Though she remembers always having been in love with someone since Kindergarden, sex was always regarded as bad and forbidden, especially for “good girls”. Sexuality was marked as shameful. But that is not the case anymore.