Hookup Culture On College Campuses

1. This article from the New York Times discusses hookup culture on college campuses from the perspective of women. The women that the data was received from were “spoken to over the course of the academic year, often repeatedly and at length” (Taylor, 2013) and hail from the University of Pennsylvania. The article argues that, although it is primarily believed that men propel hookup culture, women play an integral part too. Divided into different sections, “Sex On Campus…” states that the reason women prefer hookups over relationships in college is because relationships are too distracting from their real college goals. The female students interviewed referred to relationships versus hookups as “an economic calculation” (Taylor, 2013) rather than an emotional one, which is the main point of the article. However, it also touches upon how hookup culture perpetuates rape culture and the idea of romantics and …show more content…
The major sociological theory that can be applied to this article is social exchange theory. Defined as “[how] we measure our actions and relationships on a cost-benefit basis, seeking to maximize rewards and minimize costs…” (Strong & Cohen, 2014), this theory enriches the article’s assertion that relationships versus hookups are economic calculations. The ambiguous term of hooking-up can mean different things to different people, but all definitions agree that it “implies some degree of physical intimacy” (Strong & Cohen, 2014). Anything from making out to oral sex to vaginal intercourse can be thrown under the hookup umbrella. Through a series of interviews, “Sex on Campus…” explores how “traditional dating in college has… [been] replaced by hooking-up” (Taylor, 2013) and why. The answer that most of the interviewees can up with was that “they believed that getting too attached to someone would interfere with their work. They saw a woman’s marrying young as either proof of lack of ambition or a tragic mistake that would stunt her career” (Taylor,