The Hookup Culture on College Campuses

     There has always been a craze on college campuses known as “the hookup culture”. This is when young men and women go out on dates and engage in sexual activities for a few times or maybe even only once and then part ways and then move on to their next partners.

     This activity is not more prevalent now than in previous generations.

     In a study conducted by Professor of Sociology Martin Monto of the University of Portland (Ore.), found that men and women who had completed at least one year of college when this study was conducted in 2013, ranked about the same as the 18 – 25-year-olds who completed the same amount of university study in 1988 – 1996 as with those in 2002 – 10 (2013).

     Sixty-five-point two percent of the 2002 – 10 students admitted to hooking up at least once a week or more in the previous year, compared to 59.3 percent of those from today’s generation (2013).

     Of course, sexual promiscuity carries risks that many young people do not take into consideration before they become sexually active and then suffer the consequences later when and if those consequences happen to them. Psychologically and physically if a young woman or man sleeps around, they can get a disease and a woman, of course, can get pregnant, but in the Catholic Church there is a particular war on college student’s promiscuous behaviors.

     Doctor Christopher Klofft, a theology professor at Assumption College in Worchester, Massachusetts, is a big opponent on pre and extramarital sex, homosexuality and pornography. He has spoken out against college students’ “bad choices” regarding their own sexual behaviors on campus.

     He thinks that college students who engage in sexual promiscuity are “failing as humans” (Tyler, 2014) and the failure of the “parents” (Tyler, 2014). This, of course, is not considering the realistic viewpoint that teenagers and young adults are not going to wait until marriage for sex and that what he should be advocating for is contraception. Of course, since he is Catholic and does not believe in birth control then things will likely not change regarding people in the Catholic Church in teenage pregnancy and the spreading of diseases like gonorrhea and HIV/AIDS.

     During the college years promiscuous heterosexual college students have loads of fun sleeping around and exploring their own sexuality. This is one of the greatest things about college. This is one thing that college should be used for; to explore oneself not only academically but sexually as well.

     Regarding the LGBTQ college students or those who think they might be gay spending four or more years away from their parents at a university where they can really explore their feelings and proclivities and what makes them happy and their own preferences regarding relationships makes the college experience the most rewarding years of that young man/woman’s life.

     The term “hook-ups” is mainly a heterosexual term (Watson, et al. 2017). Data has not really been collected thus far as to how many LGBTQ students have been engaging in this culture of having sex and by that this author is talking about penetrative not just oral sex (Watson, et al. 2017).

     As already mentioned, when living on campus with a roommate can be an amazing time of sexual exploration for a young man or woman questioning his or her’s own sexuality.

     For many heterosexual men one of their biggest fantasies is watching women kiss or have sex with other women. This has been a major theme in heterosexual pornography since straight porn has existed. There have been cases where young women have developed lesbian bonds with other women simply because for the enjoyment and because they were “dared” to kiss another woman (Watson, et al., 2017) by their boyfriends or male platonic friends. They found that they could derive sort of a kinky enjoyment out of this activity which they never would have imagined doing with any of their high school boyfriends. Many eighteen-year-old young women have gone to college confused about their sexuality and left at twenty-two full fledged lesbians or bisexuals. This is the beautiful thing about college. These women found out about their own sexuality while they were stimulating their minds and getting a full education, both in the mind and the body.

     As we have seen, the college years are meant for exploration and fun. These are the years many questioning young women and men find themselves and for the up and up heterosexual young people they can experiment and sow their wild oats and get their hooking up ways out of them and then after they graduate from college, they can meet someone, get married and then settle down with a new career and spouse.

     College truly is a wonderful time to be alive. The best times of a young person’s life.

References

Tyler, Lauren. (Oct 2014) Standing up against the hookup culture, Catholic Digest.

Watson, Ryan J., Snapp, Shannon, Wang, Skyler. (13 September 2017).

What we know and where we go from here: A review of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth hookup literature, Feminist Forum Review.

Your Life. (2013). USA Today Magazine, 142(2820), 6-9.

https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.hacc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=90332648&site=ehost-live&scope=site.