HOOK-UPS

Instead of conventional dates, many college students engage in "hook-ups," or casual sexual encounters with friends or strangers. The term "hook-up" covers a range of practices, from kissing to sexual intercourse, and the appeal of the term may well lie in its ambiguity: Students can boast they "hooked up" without necessarily implying they had sex.

A study by the conservative Institute for American Values (IAV) brought national media attention to collegiate hook-up culture. Based on a nationwide survey of single, heterosexual college women, the 2001 study reported that many women reached their junior and senior years having barely dated; the few dates that did occur centered around organized fraternity or sorority events. Rather, college women chose to hang out with mixed-sex groups of friends, or engaged in a series of hook-ups with men they met at parties. Commonly, women and men within a social group hooked up, becoming "friends with benefits" rather than a romantic couple.

Some women interviewed for the study reported feeling vulnerable after a hook-up, as it was often their partner who determined whether the encounter would lead to a relationship. While the IAV contended that a pervasive hook-up culture thwarted women's desires to develop emotional attachments to men and eventually marry, some college women reported feeling empowered by their ability to express sexuality without commitment, and to focus on their studies and career goals rather than romance.

Several significant shifts in college life may have contributed to the rise of hook-up culture. Women have outnumbered men on college campuses since 1980—the national ratio in 1997 was 79 men for every 100 women—perhaps encouraging students to seek multiple partners rather than pairing up. Coed dormitories have become the norm at many universities: Students' daily encounters with the opposite sex both facilitate hook-ups and lessen the need for couples to socialize on dates. Marriage is a less immediate goal for students in the early twenty-first century than in generations past: Couples often marry in their late twenties or thirties, and are statistically less likely to have met in college. The increased mobility of students after college further lessens the incentive for developing long-term relationships.

Hooking up may fill students' emotional and social needs as well. From high school through college, couples are more likely to meet in groups than in pairs, as group support reduces awkwardness and the risk of rejection inherent in dating. Many college students say they prefer hook-ups and "friends with benefits" to the other romantic extreme on campus: "joined at the hip" couples who quickly commit to an exclusive, daily relationship.

The hook-up trend has led some to call for the return of courtship rules and the renewed role of colleges and universities in regulating sexual behavior. To counter what the media labeled a "post-dating" or "undating" culture, conservative groups such as the Independent Women's Forum advertised in college newspapers, urging students to "take back the date" by buying someone dinner or flowers. Dating in college, however, was not entirely obsolete in 2004: African American students at Howard University reported that "hook-up" had a dual meaning, referring either to a sexual encounter or a romantic dinner date.

See also: Cruising, Dating, Men's Leisure Lifestyles, Teenage Leisure Trends, Women's Leisure Lifestyles

BIBLIOGRPAHY

Beckett, Whitney. "What Lies Between the Hookup and the Marriage?" Duke University Chronicle (5 Sept. 2003).

Dunn, Lillian. "Hooking Up a Definition." Swarthmore (Pa.) Phoenix (29 Jan. 2004).

English, Bella. "Dinner and a Movie? No Thanks." The Boston Globe (11 Dec. 2003): B17.

Fletcher, Michael A. "Campus Romance, Unrequited." The Washington Post. (26 July 2001).

Marquardt, Elizabeth, and Norval Glenn. 2001. Hooking Up, Hanging Out and Hoping for Mr. Right: College Women on Dating and Mating Today. Institute for American Values. Available from http://www.americanvalues.org/.

McKnight, Ashley. "Out of Date." The Columbus Dispatch. (20 Nov. 2003): 1G.

Katherine Lehman