Hook-Up Culture is defined as one that accepts and encourages casual sexual encounters, including one-night stands and other related activity, which focus on physical pleasure without necessarily including emotional bonding or long-term commitment.
In other words-if you’ve ever participated in a sexual activity that has you leaving a dorm room or fraternity house at 7 a.m. in your dress from the night before or a “shack shirt” you are apart of the taboo hook-up culture.
Going away to college has exposed me to hook-up culture. Amongst my group of friends, we all share our stories of our crazy nights. Leaving the bar with a guy you just met or casually hooking up with a guy from your math class is a regular occurrence. For the majority of my generation it’s no longer a question of “how long will we date until we have sex” it’s”how many times will we have sex until we start dating”.
Although this has become the new norm, not everyone is so accepting of it. We are a society of hypocrites-we label woman as “sluts” and “whores” who participate in hook-up culture, yet the men who are equally involved aren’t chastised.
The worst part is it isn’t just the men shaming the women-women are shaming other women (now that just goes against girl code!) Amongst my friends, I hear people refer to the girls who have casual sex as girls with “no respect” or “dignity”.
I however, have to disagree. Hook-up culture is empowering to young women.
Until recently, women were brain washed to believe that they couldn’t openly talk about sex and the pleasures it bought them. Sex was for one purpose only: baby making. Of course, they couldn’t have a baby out of wedlock, so they focused on getting married. A woman’s goal list was: find husband, have baby and then take care of the family.
Nowadays, a young woman focuses on different paths. They focus on furthering their education by attending a university, landing their dream job or traveling the world. Of course, the idea of starting a family is still there, but it isn’t their only goal.
Casual sex allows women to still get the pleasure they want without having to fully commit to a relationship and all the effort it takes. The pressure isn’t there to settle down so quickly, therefore young woman can explore their options freely.
Hook-up culture lets me go to the bar with my girlfriends, kiss a cute guy and then go back to having a great time with them, because there is more to life than any guy.
