This content was paid for by an advertiser and created by The Wall Street Journal advertising department. The Wall Street Journal news organization was not involved in the creation of this content. But throughout history, relationshipsโwhether courtship, marriage or sexual dalliancesโare, at their heart, business arrangements. For centuries, families sought dowries to sweeten the deal of arranged marriages. In Japan, the geisha culture was built on financial transactions that often paid more for companionship than sex.
Even today, the notion that one person buys dinner on the first date is a remnant of courtship rules based on who has the money and the power. In some ways, those transactional elements are today more prominent than ever before. Driven by technology and social change, moneyโwho has it and how they spend itโis taking center stage once again when it comes to sex and love, while at the same time reframing the balance of power in the realms of dating, sex and marriage.
Online dating is virtually a metaphor for the economics of modern courtship, with would-be partners attempting to market their qualifications with a photo and a few lines of personal information. According to a study by the University of Chicago, 35 percent of couples who married between and met online. Economics play a substantial role in the online dating world, often overtly so. If users are willing to pay, the chances of meeting a soul mate, or simply someone appealing, could increase that much more.
Yet the alleged purpose of dating as we view it todayโthat being the pursuit of a supposed soul mateโis a relatively new construct. This idea of happiness in life and relationships found fertile ground in the Industrial Revolution of the same time.
Machine-based production methods helped spur the rise of a middle class, and as wages began to rise, love could trump money in the search for a partner. People could now earn enough money to live on their own. But even during this period when love in relationships rose to the forefront, relationships themselves still remained a type of business exchange, driven by male-dominated ideologies and economics.
