Here’s an article from ABC news by Susan Donaldson James titled, “Hooking up for Sex: Sluts or New Feminists.” It’s almost comical. From the title you can deduce that the entire article will solely be from women’s perspective. You can also probably guess which side of the argument will get a more positive spin, but let’s delve deeper into this fluff.
For more than a decade, the “hookup” has been an integral part of the American college experience — a result of the increased permissiveness that came with the sexual revolution of the 1970s.
So far so good. A nod to the four sirens of the female apocalypse. We are then introduced to a group called True Love Revolution at Harvard University,
They argue that women who invoke a new kind of feminism — the right to have sex whenever and with whomever they choose — is demeaning to women.
Demeaning to all women? No, to the individual women who are sluts? Well, I suppose that depends on who you’re asking. In economic terms, the more girls hooking up and ‘giving it away’ then the lower the sexual market value for those women who abstain. Where’s their ability to demand the commitment and the ring? Where’s their ability to rope in the alpha that they all so desperately want to cage? Don’t give me this crap that you care about ‘all’ women.
By the end of senior year, the average college student has had 6.9 hookups, mostly after a “good bit of drinking,” according to a survey of 4,000 students at five universities by Stanford University sociology professor Paula England.
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Her work revealed that while 24 percent of the respondents had reported never having hooked up, 28 percent had more than 10 such casual sexual encounters.
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“There’s a lot of degrading treatment of some women and it is empoweringly free for other women,” she told ABCNews.com.
Hmm, where to begin? What would be more interesting is to separate out the sexes in those hookup numbers. A more detailed breakdown of the various deciles might be more telling. That last sentence there is telling. Let’s not make any kind of value judgment. Have your cake and eat it too. It’s a null statement.
“First, men initiate more of the interaction, especially the sexual action,” she wrote. “Second, men have orgasms more frequently than women. Men’s sexual pleasure seems to be prioritized. Third, a sexual double standard persists in which women are more at risk than men of getting a bad reputation for hooking up with multiple partners.”
Starting from the top. Men are expected to initiate. As I commented over at Ferdinand’s site today. There’s an old joke. Q: How do you tell if a woman has an orgasm? A: Who cares? Women typically don’t tell a man what they like and dislike in the sack. It’s like pulling teeth to get them to verbalize what they want. In my experience most expect us to read their minds. To continue to flog a dead equine, Men display, women choose.
“When girls sleep with multiple people on different occasions, she is labeled as a ’slut’ or ‘whore,’ but when guys hook up with multiple girls they’re seen as heroes to the male race,” said Rachel Sloane, a senior at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
“As long as she isn’t taking advantage of the other person, why shouldn’t she have that right?” she asked.
Honey, you don’t understand the rights model of ethics. A woman can do as she pleases as a free individual. Choices have consequences whether you like those consequences or not. What we have here is a situation where some women want to be sluts but don’t want the label and all the baggage that comes along with their behavior. Personal responsibility, honey. Why don’t you try owning your choices.
They interview one guy in this article and here’s some selected quotes,
He doesn’t disagree that women have a right to their own sexual decision making.
“But it’s not a question of one’s right, but what one ought to do,” he said.
“What we see in the hook-up culture is the general ethos toward the sexual objectification of a person. And that is problematic for both men and women and harmful for society in general.”
Cede the language, lose the battle. He’s right about it begin harmful for society in general. I just don’t care. The article ends on a supportive note for the hook up culture from a sociology and sex professor at the University of Washington.
As long as students are protected against disease and pregnancy, said Schwartz, “they can do these things without impact.”
“And I hear,” she said, “it’s a lot less salacious than it sounds.”
I love the word salacious. It invokes carnal images in my imagination. I’ll finish with a story. One of the larger classes at the university was Human Sexuality. It was taught in the largest auditorium at school, and was always full up. Eight Hundred students every quarter. One class the professor was discussing how semen is mostly sugar. A nice sorority gal raised her hand and asked without thinking, ‘If it’s mostly sugar, how come it tastes so salty?’ There was a momentary silence and then the room erupted in laughter as she realized the implications of her question. She was quite cute when she blushed.
