The Architecture of Desire: How the Law Shapes Interracial Intimacy and Perpetuates Inequality

The Architecture of Desire explores how the law influences our romantic choices and perpetuates segregation and subordination. It traces the legacy of slavery, anti-miscegenation, segregation, and racially discriminatory immigration laws and shows how these laws have shaped residential, economic, and social distance between racial and ethnic groups. Solangel Maldonado argues that the law further influences intimate choices by structuring the spaces within which individuals meet and interact. She includes studies of online and offline dating preferences to demonstrate that romantic predilections follow a gendered racial hierarchy in which Whites are at the top, African-Americans at the bottom, and Asian-Americans and Latinos in the middle. The book proposes ways to minimize the law's influence over who we desire, love, and bring into our families, such as changes to dating platforms and housing, education, and transportation policies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 07 May 2024
Publisher: New York University Press

The Architecture of Desire explores the extent to which the law permeates our most intimate and personal romantic lives, examining how it shapes our choices of intimate partners and the psychological, economic, and social consequences of these choices. Romantic preferences, as influenced by the law, perpetuate segregation and subordination by limiting individuals' prospects for marriage and marriage-like commitments, as well as economic and social mobility. The book traces the legacy of slavery, anti-miscegenation, segregation, and racially discriminatory immigration laws, which facilitated the residential, economic, and social distance between racial and ethnic groups, and continue to shape romantic preferences today. Solangel Maldonado argues that the law further influences intimate choices by structuring the spaces within which individuals meet and interact, such as through practices like redlining, gentrification, and zoning. Maldonado includes studies of online and offline dating preferences to demonstrate that romantic predilections follow a gendered racial hierarchy, with Whites at the top, African-Americans at the bottom, and Asian-Americans and Latinos in the middle. These preferences may be explicit, implicit, or both, but they are usually the result of stereotypes reflected in social and cultural norms. Furthermore, since marriage confers substantial legal, economic, and social advantages, sexual racism further limits an individual's opportunity to find a partner and reap these benefits. Finally, the book proposes ways to minimize the law's influence over who we desire, love, and bring into our families, such as changes to dating platforms and education programs.

Weight: 549g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781479812356