Some get worn down by peer pressure and relent, but they, like the students who expected this “freedom” to be fulfilling, instead find themselves in a fog of depression, confusion, and hurt.ĭr. In truth, a majority of students shun the hookup culture – or at least try to. College culture encourages promiscuity, but one of the biggest myths is that nearly all students indulge in these mindless, depressing encounters. Wade’s book peels away several myths about college students and how they engage – or not – with the pervasive, oppressive hookup culture. In truth, a majority of students shun the hookup culture – or at least try to.ĭr.

Predictably and sadly, these encounters often result in deep feelings of regret, shame and anger.

Students hope and expect that these trysts will be fun and exciting, a ticket to social acceptance and a validation of their desirability, even their value as an individual. No wonder the typical college party is dubbed “drunkworld.” And as Lisa Wade, PhD, documents in alarming detail in her new book, American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus, these parties usually have a single goal in mind: to engage in a “hookup” – physical intimacy between students who are veritable strangers. On campuses today, that partying usually involves drinking, sometimes to the point of passing out. (Jan.When college freshmen arrive on campus, they expect to study, but many of them expect to party even more. Wade writes engagingly, and the research is historically grounded (though the history is sketched swiftly and with broad strokes) her conclusions won’t surprise anyone, but the numerous student voices she includes set her book apart from others on the topic. Stereotypes, insistent heterocentrism, punishing competition among women for male approval, and the prevalence of sexual violence. The price of the perception, Wade notes, is high: the entrenchment of gender She groups them into “abstainers,” “dabblers,” “strivers,” and “enthusiasts.” Both the media and the students themselves overestimate how much sex is happening on campus, and this leaves those who aren’t having sex (intentionally or not) feeling left out. Wade includes firsthand accounts from her research subjects (her students from the two American liberal arts colleges where she’s taught), who report in fresh and candid language on their experiences. Wade, a professor of sociology at Occidental College, reframes the conversation about casual sex on college campuses today with a sharp, canny report on how hookup culture has become a new norm of American campus life (“It’s more than just a behavior it’s the climate”), and why its sexual dynamics should be cause for concern.

American hookup book