Hookup culture on American college campuses has become a predictable subject for magazine articles and op-eds. It might be time to shift the debate. The out-of-control hookup culture on American college campuses has become a predictable subject for magazine articles, op-ed pages and blogs over the past decade or more.
But it might be time to shift the debate. A recent paper by Martin Monto and Anna Carey of the University of Portland confirmed what scholars looking at sexual behavior on campus have known for a whileβthe notion of modern campuses as a non-stop sex-fueled party is massively overblown. A lot of the media panic over hookups centers on the notion that it hurts young women.
So, are hookups bad for women? In paper, Catherine M. Grello, Deborah P. Welsh and Melinda S. Harper of the University of Tennessee surveyed studied students at a conservative-leaning US college and found 52 percent of the men had engaged in casual sex, compared with 36 percent of the women. The survey also found women suffering from depression were more likely to have casual sex, and to regret it afterwards, while depressed men were less likely to hook up.
In fact, old-fashioned sexual double standards are a big feature of hookup culture. Many of the students, particularly those from privileged backgrounds, said they preferred avoiding relationships so they could focus on schoolwork and friends. But, rather depressingly, the dorm ethnography also found some big downsides to relationships. Of 46 women they interviewed on the subject, the researchers found 10 accounts of boyfriends using abuse to avoid a breakup.
The standard narrative about hookup culture is that it benefits men at the expense of women. JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students.
