I have tried to give this thing called sexual relationship a hard long thought! Here are my thoughts,.....

I think there are three distinct types or stages of “sexual relationship" as perceived by most people:

Lust or erotic passion.

Attraction or romantic passion.

Attachment or commitment.

When all of these happen with the same person, you have a very strong bond. Most times however, the ones we lust after isn't the ones we're actually in love with.

One of the first things that draws us to other people is our sexual response. But because lust responds to abstract characteristics of the other, we might find sex a deficient basis for an on-going relationship.

Parallel to our sexual responses we also find ourselves 'falling in love'. This emotional response has deep roots in the Western culture (I'm African). But, romantic love is also a deficient basis for a meaningful relationship.

Beyond lust and love, it is still possible to create relationships based on the persons we are inventing ourselves to be. This, I think, happens when we subconsciously condition our reflex. (I can explain this)

Just as we might like to believe that our human sexuality is 'natural', so we usually assume that 'falling in love' comes automatically. But historical investigation has discovered that what we know as romantic love is only about 800 old. This seems shocking and impossible to me at first, since people have been mating and reproducing for millions of years. But if we clearly separate lust from love, perhaps lust might account for the sexual behavior of our ancestors even if they could never have understood a romantic novel and Hollywood movie.

Romantic love is a cultural construct!....... which has been spread over the whole Earth by the mass media. Before radio, television, and movies—years ago—large parts of the world had never heard of 'falling in love'. They still had sexual relationships and families, of course, but the fantasy of romantic love did not run their relationships.

Romantic love is basically an emotional story we tell ourselves. By means of the mass media, we have been programmed so that we 'fall in love' following the patterns prescribed in Hollywood and novels.

Why can't sex be considered a form of art?

So we can live it authentically, freely, & creatively!