Anti-hookup culture screeds have been a staple of publishing for more than a decade. They all identify “hookup culture” as a college campus scourge and seek to tone it down or eliminate it completely. As Amanda Hess pointed out last April in Slate, hookup culture—college as a four-year, alcohol-fueled orgy—is a canard: Fewer than 15 percent of college students
hook up more than twice a year. Another truth published in Slate: The hookup culture that does exist is largely a wealthy and white phenomenon.
A new study set to be published in the February issue of the journal Sociological Perspectives shows that the media focus on college hookup culture—whether positive or negative—just solidifies the idea among students that college involves hooking up, whether it really does or not.
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Oh, darn! I missed out on all that. I *knew* my university education was incomplete!
ReplyDeleteIn reality, I was too busy with my studies to spend much time in socializing.
I did my best, but never approached the exalted standards set by authors of college sex screeds, whether pro or con.
ReplyDeleteSo rich white kids think they're SUPPOSED to hookup, and therefore participate in hooking up???
ReplyDeleteBy the same token, we probably shouldn't be telling students how many plagiarists we've caught (even if we've caught a lot); there's the possibility of feeding an "everybody's doing it" mentality.
ReplyDeleteI teach mostly students in the "too busy" demographic; whether those who don't already have a steady partner (and/or a couple of kids) feel they're missing something or not, I don't know. The rich white kids mostly complain that we're not a "real university" because we don't have a football team.