College Ladies Getting Lucky
College campuses everywhere are teeming with budding young adults, and the subject of casual sex among them has never been so open. Especially now that women are bringing their sexuality into conversation more often. Though there has always been a presence of hooking up within the college experience, it seems that millennials seem to be sleeping around more than the generations before them. Comparisons must be made between the casual sex scene on campuses now, and the way it was with previous generations, as well as the causes of the changes in the casual sex game and the pros and cons for women as they are the ones mostly affected by these changes. However, first a solid definition of hooking up must be
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While it’s hard to pin down an exact variable, it seems that not as many students are sleeping around as expected. Approximately 60% of college students said that they had never had an oral or sexual intercourse hookup. In fact, while most students thought that 64% of their peers were having casual sex on a regular basis, in fact only 16% of college students were “hooking up” often (Hoffman 2014). So it seems that casual sex is not as popular as it seems.
Though “hooking up” is not as widely accepted as believed, the casual sex scene in college seems to have changed drastically over the past few years as it seems to come into conversation more often. However, this is not the case. College students nowadays are sleeping around just as much as 18-22 year olds were in the 70s and even the 30s! The difference between then and now is that before the time of millennials, no one was open about what was going on (Kalish 2011). It used to be that guys were the only ones talking about their sexual encounters, but now women are chatting about it more.
It is important to evaluate why college students are “hooking up” so much in the first place. There seem to be many factors affecting young adults sexual habits, but one of the most influential is the change in scenery that happens when
According to a research survey by UniSA’s Emeritus Professor Bruce Johnson, 77% of girls and 74% of boys cited their high school sexual education lessons as their number one source of information on sexuality and relationships, with friends being cited as their second most likely source. Such a large number of Australian teenagers count and rely on their PDHPE classes to teach them such paramount lessons about such an important topic. This leads us to assume that, if such a considerable percentage of high school students rely on these lessons for their sexual education, they must be learning everything they desire to know from these lessons. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Within the same research survey, it was discovered that there were many subjects students wished were taught more in depth. 52% of girls wanted more
Of students who reported hooking up, 41 percent used words such as “regretful,” “empty,” “miserable,” “disgusted,” “ashamed,” “duped” and even “abused” to describe the experience. An additional 23 percent expressed ambivalence, and the remaining 36 percent said they were more or less “fine” with hookups — “fine” being the most common description.
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
The thing is, it is not like all university students are giving up on relationships to sleep around, 69% of the students Paula England surveyed had been in a relationship for at least six months. And most of the students that had been having casual sex were not doing so with people they did not know, but friends or acquaintances.
College campuses have seen a rise, in the epidemic of Sexually transmitted diseases. Sexually transmitted diseases have quickly become a household name amongst Americans. The dangers and health issues related to acquiring a STD has been the reason why more attention has been brought to the STD epidemic. The reason for this attention is to hopefully, slow down the rate of STD’S amongst students. There is a very astonishing fact stated by the Agape Pregnancy Resource Center, “Nearly 80% percent of people that are infected with STD’s do not know it. ("Agape Pregnancy Resource Center") The use of condoms, knowing your status, and the practice of abstinence are very effective ways of avoiding contracting STD’s. If we do not make students
"Approximately four million teens get a sexually transmitted disease every year" (Scripps 1). Today’s numbers of sexually active teens differ greatly from that of just a few years ago. Which in return, projects that not only the risk of being infected with a sexually transmitted disease (STD) has risen, but the actual numbers of those infected rise each year as well. These changes have not gone unnoticed. In fact have produced adaptations as to how society educates its young adults about sex, using special programs, various advertising, and regulating sexual education courses in public schools. One major adaptation is the advancement and availability of
Another important factor in the hookup culture is alcohol and sometimes drugs. The place you are most likely to find these factors is at a party on any college campus. Party oriented students believe that drinking enhances their experiences and improves their personalities (Wade, 2017, p.29). Not all students participate in drinking or drugs and they have felt out of place and judged (Wade, 2017, p.31).
According to Koumans et. al (2005), there have not been any studies conducted on STD education or services provided by higher education institutions here in the U.S. However, several studies demonstrate that misinformation and lack of educational resources contribute to risky sexual behavior which can lead to STDs (Wyatt & Oswalt, 2014).Therefore, it is imperative that universities and colleges find ways to increase awareness of sexual health services available for students on campus.
The reading that interested me most was “The Decline of the Date and the Rise of the College Hook Up” by Paula England and Rueben J. Thomas. The initial motive for this research was that an undergraduate student of England’s “wanted to do a research paper on why students on campus didn’t date much anymore” (pg 69). The two researchers, England and Thomas, then began questioning students on Stanford University’s campus about what they thought about the increasing occurrence of hook ups as compared to going out on dates.
College is a place for trying out, experiencing and learning new things and being sexually assaulted should not be one of them. Sexual assault in college campuses over the past decade has increased by over 50% as stated by Laura Stampler in her article “Report Sees Surge in Sex Crimes on College Campuses”: “The number of sex crimes reported on U.S. college campuses soared by 50% over the course of a decade, according to a new government report Tuesday, even as total campus crime decreased” (Laura Stampler). A national survey made by and released in April of 2014 by the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault states that at least one in five college students, including men and women, experience some form of sexual assault during their time in college. In another article published on bestcolleges.com, the author states that over 95% of college campus rapes go unreported, which implies that there might be more than one in five students that gets sexually assaulted by the end of their college career. Not only that but the article on bestcolleges.com also states that women are most likely to be sexually
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.
College and universities have made great strides over the years. The campuses have grown, and the resources have improved tremendously. However, it is questionable if that social scene on these campuses has changed for the better over the years. “Work hard, party hard” has become the motto of college students to live by. Students spend the week focused on their academics, striving to grow as intellects. However, the weekend becomes the time when students look to go out and socialize at the various parties. And this is exactly what the weekend is for. With growing causal party scenes, college students have been more inclined to have a casual relationship with the opposite sex. Traditional dating on college campuses is rarely seen anymore
The practice of casual sex is more popular among American teenagers; however, the feelings of independence and empowerment obtained by it are not the only consequences. Having multiple random partners can result in sexually transmitted diseases (STD), HIV, unwanted pregnancies and other physical risks. Moreover, depression and intimacy problems can bear