Fay Weldon’s central conceit of “inordinate affection” is a way of framing the gendered inequality within the relationship between the two central characters. The idea of passion framing such inequality occurs in the story when the narrator asserts that she loves Peter in a way that necessitates being “good in bed” in the same paragraph as remarking, “I was dependent on him for my academic future” (Paragraph 4). This highlights the imbalance of power in the relationship between a male professor and a female student, suggesting that her future depends upon her desirability to him. As references to the love and sex between them continue, so do reminders that he is her professor. For example, when discussing how she loves him with “inordinate affection,” the narrator refers to an unofficial lecture he has given her about the history of the term. Not only does her future hinge on his whims, but the story suggests that the world values him for his mind and her for her body.

When their love gets explicitly named as “inordinate affection” or “Ind Aff,” it is in reference to what John Wesley considered sinful and denied feeling toward a member of his congregation.