Does it ever bother you?

I don't think love is fundamentally dependent on sex in general. Love can definitely enhance sex in an intimate way, and that intimacy is a part of the glue in a bond between two people, but I don't think you're off base by not associating love with sex in a fundamental way.

So when you're talking about one night stands and such, I wouldn't associate love with it either. It's simply acting on sexual attraction or pure self gratification. There's a different motive behind it that distinguishes between "fucking" and "making love".
Is that to say that two people in love can't just fuck each other's brains out purely for sexual gratification? Of course not. But I think that when we're talking about the association between love and sex, there definitely is one for those who have been in love with someone and share physically and emotionally intimate moments beyond simply getting their rocks off.

just curious.

am i the only guy who gets incredibly turned off when women use the C word to describe themselves?

Bad? Maybe .. No offence, but I doubt it's true.

When people have sex, hormones are secreted in the brain that basically help you fall in love. There are of course things that can counter this, you don't have to fall in love - for example if you don't find your sex partner attractive, but there's definetly a general link between sex and love.

For most people, anyway.

Maybe you could look up a paper on this and include some of it in your own research paper? Might be an interesting addition. :)

I'm all for scientific explanations - and hormones surely play their part in promoting love - but when two people can officially say they are "in love" it is hard for me to boil it down to hormones. There is much more to it...I mean, there has to be a reason people can write song after song about it and it still holds our interest. It's because we don't know wtf is going on there.

nope

.. Which is why I wrote "helps you fall in love". The reason I worded myself that way was to indicate basically what you've written.

I'm thinking of a C-word. But I can't imagine people using it to describe themselves.

Chubby perhaps?

I was thinking c-unt.