IWF’s newest junior fellow Lucy just reminded me to post an interesting article I read last week in Rolling Stone. Like a lot of magazines, RS sent a reporter down to cover the Duke rape scandal. But the result is a story about a different sort of sex scandal — the hookup culture that has replaced dating on many campuses:
The vagaries of sex on campus have created a specific ‘hookup culture’ at Duke, one that Charlotte Simmons fans might quickly recognize. As one male student describes it, it ‘exists in a whirlwind of drunkenness and horniness that lacks definition — which is what everyone likes about it [because] it’s just an environment of craziness and you don’t have to worry about it until the next morning.’
But this culture has its downsides, say some students. ‘I think the ease of hooking up has, like, made people forget what they truly want,’ says Naomi. ‘People assume that there are two very distinct elements in a relationship, one emotional and one sexual, and they pretend like there are clean lines between them.’