A boundary-pushing book that redefines how we love.
What if romantic love wasn't the only kind we prioritised? What would happen if we put the same emphasis on platonic love? How would we understand and relate to each other? How would we change?
In this quietly radical book, Wren Burke makes a case for breaking out of our outdated social and cultural conventions that tell us romance alone will bring us true happiness. By shifting our focus to love all its manifestations, Love Expanded offers us a way through the loneliness epidemic: one that prioritises community and companionship over the search for 'the one'.
This illuminating book is for anyone who wants deeper, more authentic connections; for those who crave partnership but not romance; for single people in a world which benefits couples. It offers us new languages for consent that take apart old-fashioned scripts in favour of better, clearer communication, and different approaches to dating that focus less on seeking instant attraction and more on building friendships.
You don't need a romantic partner to be complete; you're already whole.
1: Widening our Definitions of Love 2: Not the Only Story: Reconsidering
the Coming-Out Narrative 3: 'Something So Cold About Him': Compulsory
Sexuality and Abnormality 4: Not Opting In: How Sex and Romance Set
Expectations for Gender - and Why Aspecs Aren't Engaging 5: Love Languages:
Sex and Consent 6: Home: Non-Traditional Families 7: Friendless: The Problem
with the Decline of Friendship 8: The Body: An Aspec Perspective on Body
Politics 9: Legitimate: Asexuality, Aromanticism and Institutionalized
Discrimination 10: Invisible No More: What Next?
Wren grew up in a quiet corner of Hertfordshire, where they spent a lot of time wondering why everyone else was so interested in the whole 'dating' thing. Without much of a local queer community, they turned to the internet to find their people, and to stories for their representation.
They spend their free time birdwatching, playing video and tabletop games, and over-analyzing fictional characters in everything from Shakespeare to science fiction. Love Expanded is their first book.
