Hookup culture on the rise

By Nick Forrester

Published Feb. 15, 2008

When students talk about hooking up, they often misinterpret it as simply having sex with someone. But the term often has to be clarified.

Kathleen Bogle, assistant professor of sociology, social work and criminal justice at LaSalle University in Philadelphia, wrote a book about the hookup culture of college students entitled “Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus.”

Hooking up can mean several different things, including making-out, oral sex or intercourse.

“Students tend to overestimate what their peers are doing,” Bogle said. “In other words, students often perceive that others hook up more often and go farther sexually during hookup encounters. These perceptions affect their own behavior because students make decisions about their own lives based on what they believe is normal for college students.”

There are several things that have caused this culture of hooking up.

“In today’s society, women are going to college simply to get an education, and not necessarily to find a husband,” MU communications professor Jennifer Aubrey said. “In fact, they resent that idea, and that has led to this idea of hooking up more.”

Bogle contributes the genesis of this culture to several things, including schools having a lower percentage of men. “In the past, not many women went to college, so men would be bending over backwards to try and get a date with a girl. Today, there are often more women on campus than men, so men are the scarce resource.”

According to the University Registrar, in fall 2006, there were 11,059 female undergraduate students at MU. Women made up a total of 51.3 percent of undergraduates.

The hookup culture can have mental and sexual side effects, Bogle and Aubrey said.

“First, women are far more likely than men to get a bad reputation for how they conduct themselves in the hookup culture,” Bogle said. “Women can get a bad reputation for many different things including how often they hook up, who they hook up with, how far they go sexually during a hookup and how they dress when they go out on a night where hooking up may happen. Men who are very active in the hookup culture may be called a player. Women, on the other hand, get labeled a slut.”

Bogle said women are not getting what they want from the hookup system.

“Women often want relationships and most are dissatisfied with how often hooking up leads to no ongoing, stable relationship,” she said in an essay.

Alexandra Balzer, graduate outreach coordinator at the Student Health Center, said there are health risks that can occur when hooking up.

“The more partners that someone has, the more at risk they are for unwanted pregnancies or STD’s,” Balzer said.

The Student Health Center offers STD testing, health screening and free condoms for students.

The Student Health Center also offers a program called Sexual Health Advocates Peer Education. SHAPE offers several different programs for students, without advocating any choices regarding sexual behavior, including how to prevent STD’s and unwanted pregnancies.