" the problem is not that it’s undignified to be a sex object. we are all sex objects, men as well as women—which in no way precludes our simultaneously being intellectual agents. the issue lies elsewhere. it is the trivialization of love that is the tragedy of our time. it is the methodical demystification, recrealization, and domestication of eros that is making today’s world a so much flatter place.

— cristina nehring, a vindication of love.