Gender Roles In Hookup Culture

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Colleges these days are hotbeds of sexual activity. With sixty to eighty percent of undergraduates admitting to having taken part in some kind of hookup, no one can seem to keep it in their pants (Garcia). Hookup culture effects safety and psychological heath, especially in women, and this is a problem. To get to the root of the issue, we must first fully understand what the term “hookup” means. In today’s world, the word “hookup,” also referred to as a “one night stand” or even a “quickie,” is often used as a catch-all phrase. According to Huffington Post, hooking up can be defined as “entailing certain sex acts ‘between two people who are not dating or in a serious relationship and do not expect anything further.’” So, essentially, …show more content…
Female pleasure and consent are clearly still secondary in hookup culture. Our language and attitude towards the subject is demoralizing to women (Mena). The majority of hookups are planned around satisfying men (Young). “Tied up as it is with emotion and patient mood-building, female sexual pleasure (often elusive for those who’ve never been in a long-term monogamous relationship) was rarely found in hookups” (Owens). In addition, there is an outrageous double standard when it comes to women that do choose to have casual sex with multiple partners will probably be labeled as sluts or whores. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to be congratulated by their peers …show more content…
Usually, the answer is as simple as “everyone is doing it.” Hookups are so common that students almost feel obligated to participate in the trend (Weber). For example, one rape survivor says that her “sexcapades” began with her stress to fit in. However, some women hookup to quench their natural human thirst for affection. When asked why they have casual sex, some women stated that it made them feel sexy, cute, or better about themselves. Others said that they did it because they felt like it was expected of her. Clearly, this is not the way to go about coping with self-esteem issues

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