ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the research that is to interrogate the experiences and expectations of individuals within dyadic heterosexual relationships and ascertain the extent to which they reflect the dominant sociological accounts. The presented research focuses on couples living within heterosexual relationships, a characteristic that the author wishes to make explicit as heterosexuality as a category is rarely acknowledged or problematized. Intimate relationships, taking the form of family, kin, sexual and couple relationships, along with other associations including friendship, lie at the centre of contemporary sociological debate. Within this debate some dominant perspectives have emerged, towards which most of the literature corresponds. Recent thought about intimacy revolves around the theme of social change, with discussion focusing on the impact of wider societal change on personal relationships. The chapter also focuses on female heterosexuality, as sociology has only recently begun to unpack and problematize masculinity as a concept.
