GENDER & SOCIETY, Vol XX No. X, Month, XXXX 1–23 DOI: 10.1177/0891243216679121 © 2016 by The Author(s) BLINDED BY LOVE: Women, Men, and Gendered Age in Relationship Stories CRISTEN DALESSANDRO AMY C. WILKINS University of Colorado Boulder, USA While young people today expect gender equity in relationships, inequality persists. In this article, we use interviews with 25 young adults (ages 22 to 32) to investigate the link between gender meanings, age meanings, and continued inequality in relationships. Middle-class young adults tell relationship stories in a gender and age context that both reflect and perpetuate ideas about adult masculinity and femininity. While women often tell stories of poor treatment in relationships, they are able to reclaim agency over their experiences and believe that they can solve their relationship problems by understanding their experiences as part of the normative path to adult womanhood. In contrast, men are able to explain their bad relationship behavior by attributing that behavior to youth and immaturity. By telling these stories, both women and men imagine that growing up will fix gender inequalities, obfuscating the persistence of gender inequalities in later adulthood. This work sheds light on the way narratives of age contribute to the persistence of gender inequality in romantic relationships. Keywords: emotions; identities; aging/life course; sexuality; relationship stories C ontemporary middle-class young adults face a conundrum: They expect equal relationships, but mostly do not have them (Bell 2013; Eaton and Rose 2011; England 2010; Gerson 2010; Hochschild 1989; 679121GAS XX X 10.1177/0891243216679121GENDER & SOCIETYDalessandro and Wilkins / BLINDED BY LOVE research-article 2016 AUTHORS’ NOTE: This article was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Chicago, IL, and at the Culture, Power, and Inequality Workshop at the University of Colorado Boulder. We would also like to thank Catherine Bowman, Nicole Lambert, and Jennifer Pace for their comments on earlier drafts of this article. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Cristen Dalessandro, Department of Sociology, UCB 327, Ketchum 195, Boulder, CO 80309, USA; e-mail: cristen.dalessandro@colorado.edu. at UNIV OF COLORADO LIBRARIES on November 30, 2016 gas.sagepub.com Downloaded from