Sex has consequences. For one thing, I have it on good authority that even in , sex still has something to do with babies. Even before the babies, though, sex is morally consequential. It changes us as human beings, in ways that we are not at liberty to choose.
When we allow ourselves to forget that, the fallout can be ugly. The social scene that results is disturbing, to put it mildly. We are treated to the tale of a college freshman who loses her virginity in a one night stand, and returns home exultant because now, having nothing left to lose, she is entirely free for further sexual exploits. Some women do confess shame or embarrassment after succumbing to hookup pressure, but in the end their priorities remain clear.
Hookup culture, like fast food, enables students to service their bodies while focusing attention on their bright futures. Before we conclude that the rising generation is entirely lost, we should bear in mind that this account may not be entirely representative. Sign up to get Crisis articles delivered to your inbox daily.
Undergraduates enjoy shocking their elders, and they also enjoy representing themselves as mature and streetwise. These impulses may color their verbal representations of themselves in the context of an interview. Surveys are less apt to entice subjects to exaggeration, and indeed, many survey-based studies present a less grim picture of undergraduate sexual habits.
Exaggeration, however, can itself be revealing of noteworthy cultural trends. Even if a majority of students are not hooking up on a regular basis, they do seem to be familiar with the hookup ethos, and they enjoy presenting themselves as participants whether or not they really are. That suggests that there is something about hookup culture that attracts them and that does, at least in some of its aspects, represent a kind of ideal.
