Is hookup culture bad for young women?
Has sex become so "cheap" -
By Rebecca Kamm @rebeccakamm
10:10 AM Wednesday Jun 26, 2013
Boringly, I had a steady boyfriend all the way through my university days, so I never
really experienced the carousel of college "hookups". But I remember that for a lot
of my girlfriends it was a time of sexing up a bunch of different guys -
So it's interesting to me that casual sex at university has become an area of research, positioned almost solely as something that's harmful to young women. Just two days ago for instance, a new study was released that found university students who had casual sex before university are more likely to have casual sexduring university. And that female first year college students who smoke marijuana are more likely to "hook up".
In other words, virgins have sex less than non-
The study, calledPredictors of Sexual Hookups: A Theory-
Or is university "hookup" culture a genuine cause for concern?
The language of this
particular study seems to say yes. Factors that posed a "risk" -
There are two things I'd take out of that mixed bag to examine more closely. Firstly, if students are getting wasted and having sex they regret, what's the ethics for men around sleeping with a young woman whose judgement is impaired?
The issue of "self esteem" also warrants further inspection. The study reports:
"Students also experienced emotional consequences as a result of their most recent hookup, with 20.8% of students reporting experiencing a loss of respect, 27.1% of students indicating feeling embarrassed, [and] 24.7% of students reporting emotional difficulties."
If female students' participation in casual sex is strongly linked to poor self esteem,
that's cause for concern. Why is hooking up seen as the route to validation, for
instance. Is it because there's a culture of sexual peer pressure for young people?
Has sex become so "cheap" -
It's hard to say. Other research suggests not -
Donna Freitas, author of new book The End of Sex: How Hookup Culture is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy, argues yes. That the culture of casual sex at universities is rife, compulsory, unfulfilling, and the direct cause of epidemic levels of unsatisfactory sex.
Hookup culture "can be just as oppressive as a mandate for abstinence" she tellsThe Washington Post.
"When students are expected to hookup with lots of people, doing so becomes dutiful,
not daring. Older ideas of sexual exploration -
In 2006, Freitas had 1,230 students answer an optional survey question about casual sex: "36 per cent at nonreligious private and public schools said their peers were too casual about sex, and they said privately that they wished this weren't the case," she says.
What's more, from the pool of students who reported hooking up, "41 per cent used
words such as 'regretful,' 'empty,' 'miserable,' 'disgusted,' 'ashamed,' 'duped'
and even 'abused' to describe the experience." According to Freitas, "Traditions
such as dates and get-
It's hard to know whether the writer's research gives genuine reason to worry, or
whether it's tainted by personal (and conservative) moral factors. It is hard to
deny that young fumblings do not generally constitute great sex -
Amanda Hess of Slate thinks not: "Students on college campuses aren't actually hooking
up that much," she says, pointing to research by sociologist and hookup-
And what of empowerment? Who's to say hookup culture isn't simply a reflection of
a generation of young women free of dated assumptions that multiple sexual encounters
is immoral? To suggest otherwise risks also suggesting that women always have an
ulterior motive when it comes to sex -
Which isn't to say bad sex with some horny goon you meet at a party is the most fulfilling,
life-