Positives and Negatives to the Hook-up Culture

Positives and Negatives to the Hook-up Culture

By Audrey Dinyari

The article by Justin Garcia focuses on our generation’s growing habit with casual sex labeled as hook-ups.  Garcia mentions that as the age of children starting puberty gets younger, so does the age of adults getting married and having children.  Yet even as people are physically ready to reproduce, they usually are not ready mentally to settle down.  This is where hooking-up comes into play.  This article looks at how casual sex is becoming increasing normal in our society and the consequences and after-math of hooking-up.

The media has become this generation’s form of sex education.  With more and more images of sexual encounters as casual with the teenage crowd, the general population thinks it is normal to hook up.  The part the media doesn’t always show is the effects of hooking-up, or the morning after a one-night stand.  The article talks about how hooking-up is connected to sexual violence, the rise of STD’s and emotional damage.  One statistic in the article showed that over 50% of casual sexual interactions were after alcohol consumption.  This shows how casual sex and intoxication are strongly related.  Which also explains the negative reactions after hooking-up that both sexes displayed.  Yet the majority had positive feelings toward the experience.  And for individuals feeling regret after the experience, both genders had similar responses. (Justin R. Garcia, "Sexual Hook-up Culture," American Psychological Association, 44, no. 2 (2013): 60,)

One interesting difference between male and female responses was when individuals felt bad after a hook-up.  The male responders felt bad because they felt they had used the other person.  The females on the other hand, felt bad because they felt they had been used.  This is important as it shows how casual sex still holds that dominating factor that men should control women.  Even if women are trying to take control of their sexuality and use casual sex as a symbol of their autonomy, they need to make sure they are still being respected and have confidence in their actions.

Personally I think that hooking-up is an important part of growing up.  I think you should experiment as much as you are comfortable with and see exactly what you want out of a relationship.  By trying different things and different people, you can better understand yourself and what kind of spouse you desire.  Hooking-up is tricky.  You have to understand that it is not temporary and the desire you feel should not become strong emotions unless you want a committed relationship from that person.  Getting the feelings from the heat of the moment and actual deep emotions for a person can get confused and that’s where hooking-up can be damaging.  I think that as casual sex becomes more popular in society, women and men alike will be granted more sexual freedom, but we just need to be aware of what that means and the consequences of participating.

From class lecture we discussed how the Native American’s treated sex as a casual interaction used to build trust and knowledge of new people.  Although the situation and social idea of hooking-up looks very different from the Native’s sexual practice, this similarity in casual sex says something about human nature.  Sexual preferences were discovered after experimenting.  Everything we personally love about sex was discovered from trying it.  Hooking up is our generation’s way of trying out sexuality and seeing what we like.  As long as we keep in mind the effects hooking-up will have on us, physically and mentally, and are aware of the repercussions, our generation can use casual sex as a great resource for discovering our sexuality.

Endnotes

Justin R. Garcia, "Sexual Hook-up Culture," American Psychological Association, 44, no. 2 (2013): 60,

Class lecture 1/21/14

Cyrstal Moore, Ppt, Native American Sexuality and Sexual Violoation in the Conquest of the Americas, slides 7-8

Photo

Justin R. Garcia, "Sexual Hook-up Culture," American Psychological Association, 44, no. 2 (2013): 60,