The crush: a new sentimental education

Far from being indescribable psychological and individual phenomena, emotions and feelings – like tastes in general – can be the subject of sociological study. Following on from the classic work that developed the notion of script in sexuality, feelings can also be situated and contextualized, particularly in their generational and cultural dimensions. Just as flirting has been analysed over the course of its history in terms of its relation to mentalities, and of access to the body and to the cultural products of an era (cinema and the yéyé movement), so too ‘crush’, a generational term, gives us a highly contemporary understanding of adolescents’ and many young adults’ sentimental education, and of the role therein of cultural productions, social media and digital practices. Above all, a crush, a secret attraction, cannot be understood without grasping the collective dimension and gendered logics of the emotional work involved.