Love, breakups, rejection, online dating, sex and relationships can be tough.
For the students in SR136 Jiwon Moore eases the confusion by teaching “the ins and outs of relationships so that students make less mistakes and are less unhappy.”

Online dating, sexual harassment and May-December relationships, in which traditionally couples have one person in the relationship significantly older than the other, were the topics discussed on March 26.

Moore opened up her Sociology 131; “Sociology of Marriage and the Family,” to visitors as part of the Women’s History Month events that occurred in March. The class is held every Tuesday and Thursday from 10:15 a.m. to 11:47 a.m.

Sexual harassment in the workforce, Moore explained, is typically filed by women, since traditionally they held a lower social status than men. But in recent years, since career women have been in more managerial positions, sexual harassment suits have been filed against them.

Moore also pointed out that it has become more socially acceptable for women to enter a May-December relationship, where the woman tends to be a lot older than the man, when it has been traditionally more acceptable for an older man date a much younger woman.
Demi Moore, 46, and husband Ashton Kutcher, 31, was one of the examples of a May-December relationship.

“We are becoming, especially professional women, much more non-traditional,” said [Jiwon] Moore, who attributes the change to more career women having more power, the underlying factor of all May-December relationships.

Moore points out that a man does not necessarily have to be rich to date a younger woman. As an example, she talked about her father-in-law, who is 84-years-old, and his wife, who just turned 40.

With the marriage being untraditional, Moore explained the difficulties of accepting a relationship that is out of the norm.
“We don’t have a good relationship,” said Moore about her father-in-law’s wife.

“My father-in-law is Caucasian,” said Moore, who is an Asian-American. Moore said that the linguistic ability of her father-in-law is superior to that of his wife, as well as is his knowledge of the laws in this country and his education put him at a higher social status.

“There are other things besides money that increase a person’s social status,” said Moore.

The May-December marriage is socially unacceptable unless the older person in the relationship has wealth, status, or power as Moore puts it.

The ideal age difference between a couple, said Moore, is two to five years.
Beatriz Napoles, 18-year-old psychology major who attends the class, mentioned that she was uncertain of how she felt about role reversal as women begin to be more in charge but has accepted that it occurs frequently.
Online dating was another topic discussed that day.

Benefits such as being able to cut off communication easily, variety of choices, and an increase of the quality of communication, were mentioned by Moore.

The drawbacks included disappointment upon face-to-face meeting, unable to keep a long distance relationship, and lack of commitment for those who seek it.

Free of charge dating sites that included matchdoctor.com, plentyoffish.com, and okcupid.com were seen as playful Web sites where a person might not find a serious relationship.

Dating sites that charge a fee were seen as more of the serious Web sites, where a person may find a more serious relationship that the Web sites that are free of charge.

Other topics discussed in the class educate students on “understanding of past, present, and future relationships in regard to any relationship that will lead to happiness – friendship, romantic love, mature love, physical intimacy, gender communication, marriage, parenting, work, management of crises, ‘uncoupling’- getting out of the unhappy marriage or relationship,?and remarriage or future relationship patterns,” said Moore.

Napoles enjoys the class, “she [Moore] makes it fun as we learn about marriage, so we know what to expect when we go into marriage. We learn about the different types of love, so we know the differences between real and fake love.”

Moore adds that the class will help each student to examine, learn, analyze, and use, if applicable what they have learned in the class.

“So that they would make least mistakes and stay focused and happy,” said Moore.?”In sociology when an individual is happy, their society at large?is happy and healthy.”