`` Hooking Up ' : What Educators Need For Know

Across the U.S. college students on a variety of campuses have part taken in what is commonly known as the “hookup culture.” The hookup culture does not always have to include sexual intercourse although it most often does, but it is merely the idea of having physical pleasure with another person outside of an emotional relationship. College students, even at some of America’s most prestigious colleges realize hooking up has completely overthrown the idea of being in an actual relationship. Emily Foxhall a Yale student wrote an article for the Yale Daily News in 2010 stating that the hookup culture is so prevalent on Yale’s campus because students have enough stress to worry about, casual hookups are easy (Foxhall, 2010). The question becomes, is the college hookup culture vital and normal to the college experience or should it be condemned for being harmful to college age persons mentality.

Sexual assault on college campuses is an extensive topic that has concerned people for many years. The high rates and the case report cover-ups have brought about many varying opinions. Many people believe in changing the college framework to establish universities that are better equipped to deal with this issue. Others feel that the problem could be addressed by changing society’s outlook on crimes like these. While another group feels that the problem is in how we define rape. Despite these differences in opinions, one thing is clear, everyone agrees that something must be done to reduce sexual assault on campuses.

The alarming increase in sexual assault among male and female students is a source of concern. Despite improvements in the general statistics on rape cases, the college setting remains to be the hot bed of sexual assault, especially among the female counterparts (Allen, 2007). A victim, regardless being a male or a female, never feel safe in their life as something precious was taken from them once. Statistics show that 17.6% of women are likely to be victims of rape in their entire lifetime while only 0.3% of males are estimated to be the victims of sexual assault. According to the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS), the most critical ages men and females are likely to be engaged in sexual abuse is when they are children or adolescents (Gonzales, Schofield & Schmitt, 2006).

Sexual assault is sexual activity of any kind that does not involve the other person’s consent. Sexual assault includes rape, forced sodomy, forced oral sex, and any form of unwanted sexual touching. Most common types of sexual assault are mostly affiliated with the drugs of roofies or GHB being slipped into a drink. This often appears to happen at college parties. According to research, “the typical scenario of sexual assault on college campus includes the woman’s drinking at a party and playing drinking games, a situation where she has been given a drink in which the alcohol has been disguised as punch” (Bohmer, Parrot 20). Popular culture depicts college as a place for free booze and sexual conquests, as sensationalized by popular movies like “Project X” and “22nd Jump Street.” Consequently, the public medium portray partying and binge-drinking as the typical college and teenage social norm. Oftentimes, college is the first opportunity for young individuals to live away from home. For many, college is a time of sexual freedom, exploration, and experimentation. According to Julie E. Samuels from

Free-and-easy sex prides itself on being commitment free, no emotional ties attached. Today, this idea of leaving all emotions at the door is the supposedly, sophisticated choice on campus. It is now well understood that traditional dating in college has mostly gone the way of the landline, replaced by “hooking up”- an ambiguous term that can signify anything from making out to oral sex to intercourse - all complete without the emotional entanglement of a real relationship. As times have changed, students begin to view a relationship as “too time consuming” and something that no longer takes priority amongst their busy, high achieving schedules. However, hooking up threatens the sexual, physical, and psychological health of college-age youth. Today’s youth may want to think twice before engaging in the prevalent hook-up culture. Despite the popularity of positive feelings, hookups can include negative outcomes including emotional and psychological injury, and even more concerning consequences such as unintended rape. In order to protect our generation, and more specifically our women, society must acknowledge the detrimental effects of a hook up culture to create a greater understanding surrounding this risky sexual behavior and ensure a more powerful, positive presence for women in our society. The combination of a society seeped in rape culture and an alcohol infused hookup culture creates a compromising sexual environment where women have limited control, opening the

Kelly transitions into his argument about why hookup culture should be concerning. Referring to his four main factors, he summarizes how each could be potentially harmful, especially to women in college. A lack of commitment takes away the emotions and connection made through physical contact. Future relationships are at risk due to this detachment. Ambiguous language creates a lack of trust between partners, causes classmates to make assumptions, and distorts risks. Alcohol impairs judgement relating to hooking up. This ends up in several undesirable scenarios, including rape and regrettable sex. Lastly, social pressure forces students into the hookup culture. Kelly stresses that there is a severe skewness against women. There is a fine line for them between participating in the culture and being known as a slut. There is a substantial double standard in hookup culture.

Freshmen and sophomores have a greater risk for on campus rape and sexual assault during the first semester of college (Wyatt, T., Oswald S. 2014). One way to make incoming students aware of their risks they have while attending a university is by providing sex education in higher education setting. This curriculum should include consent education, which discusses having permission to perform sexual acts, as well as recognizing how and when to report a crime. It may be argued that this is something that should have been covered in high school, but a refresher course on sexual education could be beneficial. College students are adults, and adults should be given information to keep themselves and others safe while attending the university. This information could be given at incoming freshmen orientation, first year

Throughout history the need to reproduce has been the driving force in continuing the human species. This need to reproduce has acquired the name sex, which can hold various different meanings and have a wide range of actions that attach to the word itself. In the 21st century there has been this new phenomenon stemming from sex known as hooking up. Now you may ask, what it hooking up? The general definition is casual sex between two individuals who could be either friends or acuminates (who please each other’s physical need for sexual intercourse.) Usually there are no strings attached meaning that there is no emotional attachment from the sex, just a physical trade of pleasure between the two parties. The

A stressed college student, Margot, is walking back to her dorm late at night when suddenly she feels a tap on her shoulder. When she turns around, she sees a seemingly kind face of a peer. He offers to walk her to her dorm and asks to come inside. The next day she is still in shock from the night before, she never said no when he came onto her, but she never said yes either. She doesn’t want to cry rape in fear of what people might think. This is the harsh reality for college students all across the United States today. Nobody wants to believe that their child or friend could be guilty of such a harsh, but common crime. The truth is, these crimes happen on a daily basis. Sexual assault has been an issue on college campuses since the early

In Daniel Luzer’s article, “Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” published on November 18, 2013 by Pacific Standard, the author argues that alcohol is not the only thing to blame for sexual assault on college campuses. He observed that alcohol has always been a risk factor when it comes to sexual assault, but drinking is not what has changed throughout the years. What has changed is the way men and women socialize with one another. Throughout the years, interaction between young men and women in college has become less instructed. Back then colleges were not coed and there were rules for when women were allowed in the male dorms including certain times they were allowed there. There are not as

In the article, high sexual prime of the hundreds youth on campus together with alcohol and other drugs are blamed for these heinous acts and it has thus become an “accepted” cultural norm. Sexual assault, which the article defines as a forceful compellation of someone to engage in unwanted sexual activities with another, and it can range from kissing to penetration, is on the rampant increase and hence raising nationwide concerns. These concerns and opinions, however, divide the nation along political, gender, civic, and cultural lines. Meanwhile no exact factors have been linked to the rising cases of sexual assault on campus even though alcohol, male college sexuality and age have proven to be a factor. On this, divisive positions also emerge but no one seems to answer the question why it is so frequent and rampant in nearly all college campuses.

In Daniel Luzer’s article “Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” he suggesting that alcohol is not the reason for the continuous sexual assaults at the college level, published on November 18, 2013 by Pacific Standard. In this article Daniel along with other sources suggest that all of the sexual assaults in college, although may involve alcohol, should not be blamed on alcohol, but on the society we have become. They suggest how college students mingle today is different than how they did years ago, and college students are not assaulting females because they are drunk, but because they have not been taught that it is wrong to do so. Different studies have shown that alcohol in colleges has not

Hooking up has become an increasingly studied culture by many sociologists around the country. These studies have been done to understand the shift from the old culture of dating to the new culture of hooking up that we experience now. Many people find it interesting that the kids of our generation have become so sexualized and carefree compared to the college days of our parents. Many people wonder how we got to this point and how the dynamics of hookups work, and why we continue to go on with them even sometimes at cost of our mental and physical help. One of these people was Kathleen A. Bogle, who wrote an entire book on the subject called, Hooking Up: Sex, Dating, and Relationships on Campus, which is the focal point of this essay.

In David Luzer’s article “Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” published on November 18 2015 by Pacific Standard, introduces that alcohol is not entirely to blame for the matter of rises in sexual assault. After thoroughly overviewing the many cases of sexual assault from modern time to back mid 1900’s, before co-educated colleges they realized the numbers have significantly increased. Without any evidence as to why except the common factor alcohol, they started to put blame where it does not belong. Alarmingly, the numbers have increased in many colleges causing people to caution woman about how they act at celebrations. Many people disagreed with the caution of woman, and decided the blame

College-age adults are known to be high risk for sexual violence and most studies show that one in three women have experiences some type of sexual assault whether it was through physical force or harassment. These statics are known by most women on college campuses to ensure that women know and understand that this could happen to them. The issue is more than ensuring that women are aware of how protect themselves and know how to avoid these situations because it shouldn’t even be happening. When women are taught that they should know how to defend themselves we are saying that this type of behavior is normal and inevitable. We should shift from this dynamic and start teaching both men and women that this behavior is completely unacceptable and that sexually assaulting or harassing someone is NOT normal. This paper will mostly focus on incidents of rape and sexual assault on college campuses and what the outcome and reactions of these incidents were.