Lisa Wade, a sociology prof at Occidental College, presented a talk on “The Promise and Perils of Hook-Up Culture” at Franklin & Marshall College, explaining her research findings in a survey of students’ attitudes to casual sex on campus. She affirms that casual sex on campus is nothing new, but that the “hookup culture”‘s expectations and demands are a serious impediment to sexual and emotional happiness:
In her own research, Lisa has found that students want sex to be pleasurable, empowering, or meaningful. But, alas, they seem to have difficulty achieving any one of those things in great measure. The culprit, she concludes, isn’t hooking up, it’s hook up culture. When a hook up culture dominates, all other ways of being sexual are repressed, and that leaves many students involuntarily celibate or having sex they don’t really want. The solution: an opening up of sexual options that allow students to truly, genuinely explore their own sexualities safely.