@inbook{7ea3f96c9c0944b5ba00299548a510d4,
title = "{\textquoteleft}I wanted a happy ever after life{\textquoteright}: love, romance and disappointment in heterosexual single mothers{\textquoteright} intimacy scripts",
abstract = "This chapter discusses conceptions of romantic love in relation to disappointment, which Illouz (Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007; Why Love Hurts. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012) identifies as a key feature of contemporary love and dating practices. Narrative research identified layers of complexity within single mothers{\textquoteright} choice-making around intimacy. Participants experienced disappointment that ideal romantic relationships envisaged as part of {\textquoteleft}intimacy scripts{\textquoteright}—or blueprints for intimate lives—had not come to fruition. Culturally endorsed intimacy scripts were overlaid with commercialised narratives of romance (Illouz, Why Love Hurts. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012). Bound up with material aspirations, these functioned as a form of {\textquoteleft}cruel optimism{\textquoteright} (Berlant, Cruel Optimism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011), promising fulfilment but failing to deliver either normative family life, gender equality, meaningful relationships or ideal romantic {\textquoteleft}happy endings{\textquoteright}. Everyday lived realities rather entailed prioritising material survival, safety and provision of care for dependents.",
keywords = "intimacy, heterosexuality",
author = "Morris, {Charlotte Ann}",
year = "2020",
month = jan,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1007/978-3-030-29256-0_12",
language = "English",
isbn = "978-3-030-29255-3",
series = " Studies in Family and Intimate Life",
publisher = "Palgrave Macmillan",
pages = "261--283",
editor = "Julia Carter and Lorena Arocha",
booktitle = "Romantic Relationships in a Time of {\textquoteleft}Cold Intimacies'",
}
