Hooking Up: A New Culture?

Hooking Up: What are the risks for young women?

Summary:

I found this article and I found it very interesting because it is very much about college students lives now and it related to the family because it appears to be an alternative to dating. The problem isn’t casual sex, but a “moral panic” over casual sex. The main concern isn’t necessarily moral, but rather that these young women seem less focused on their own sexual pleasure and more worried about being seen as “hot” by men the rise of limited liability hedonism. The assertion today is that “young people have virtually abandoned dating” and that “relationships have been replaced by the casual sexual encounters known as hookups.” This opinion also suggests that young people are having more sex at earlier ages in more casual contexts than their Baby Boomer parents which this is not the case. The young people of today are not having more sex at younger ages than their parents. However, the trend toward greater sexual activity among young people appears to halt or reverse among the youngest cohort in the NHSLS, those born from 1963-72. In addition, the sexual activity in hookups is often relatively light. Another fact is that hookups between total strangers are relatively uncommon, while hooking up with the same person multiple times is common. Ongoing sexual relationships without commitment are labeled as “repeat,” “regular,” or “continuing” hookups, and sometimes as “friends with benefits.” Often there is friendship or socializing both before and after the hookup.

Hooking up hasn’t replaced committed relationships. Students often participate in both at different times during college. Hookups sometimes became committed relationships and vice versa; generally the distinction revolved around the agreed upon level of exclusivity and the willingness to refer to each other as “girlfriend/boyfriend.” Concluding that hooking up isn’t radically new. As stated before, the big change in adolescent and young adult sexual behavior occurred with the Baby Boomers. This makes sense, as the forces giving rise to casual sexual activity among the young—the availability of birth control pill, the women’s and sexual liberation movements, and the decline of in loco parentis on college campuses. The thing of the matter is that the young people today—particularly young whites from affluent families—are expected to delay the commitments of adulthood while they invest in careers. They get the message that sex is okay, as long as it doesn’t jeopardize their futures; STDs and early pregnancies are to be avoided. This generates a sort of limited liability hedonism. The media panic over hooking up may be at least in part a result of adult confusion about youth sexual culture. This meaning that the media has caused an irrational fear which is just a misunderstanding. Hooking up in college isn’t the rampant hedonistic free-for-all portrayed by the media, it does involve the movement of sexual activity outside of relationships, but it is not something that needs to be stopped immediately in fear of someone becoming hurt.

Hookups are problematic for girls and young women for several related reasons. As many observers of American youth sexual culture have found, a sexual double standard continues to be pervasive. Sexual labeling among adolescents and young adults may only loosely relate to actual sexual behavior; for example, one woman complained in her interview that she was a virgin the first time she was called a “slut.” The lack of clear rules about what is “slutty” and what is not contribute to women’s fears of stigma. On college campuses, this sexual double standard often finds its most prevalent expression in the Greek scene. Fraternities are often the only venues where large groups of underage students can readily access alcohol. Consequently, one of the easiest places to find hookup partners is in a male-dominated party context. The most commonly encountered disadvantage of hookups, though, is that sex in relationships is far better for women. A survey revealed that women orgasm more often and report higher levels of sexual satisfaction in relationship sex than in hookup sex. In contrast, relationships provide a context in which sex is viewed as acceptable for women, protecting them from stigma and establishing sexual reciprocity as a basic expectation. In addition, relationships offer love and companionship.

Relationships are good for sex but, unfortunately, they have a dark side as well. Relationships are “greedy,” getting in the way of other things that young women want to be doing as adolescents and young adults, and they are often characterized by gender inequality—sometimes even violence. Women complained that committed relationships competed with schoolwork. In contrast, relationships provide a context in which sex is viewed as acceptable for women, protecting them from stigma and establishing sexual reciprocity as a basic expectation. In addition, relationships offer love and companionship.

Opinions/Questions:

I wanted to know how the class feels about this article in general. Do you think that culture of hooking up will replace dating altogether?

Does everyone agree with the double standard for men and women? Is there also a double standard for the baby boomer generation and the current generation of college students?

Does Greek life promote this type of culture and would it be prevalent in college without Greek life?