As college students, many of us have culture or are familiar with hookup culture. Hookup culture is based on sexual intimacy paired with outward rejection of any emotional connection to accompany that physical relationship. The prevalence of this culture for college students can hookup attributed to the ease of dating apps, the availability of contraceptives and the freedoms that college and young adult life offer.

This agency, however, finds itself unequally shared between women and men. Men are often socialized to disrespect and even dislike women. The institutions of our society allow and encourage these behaviors. This disrespect shows up in hookups and relationships, and in other contexts as well.

There are many women who genuinely want casual hookups, therefore the statement of empowerment stands true. However, there is another cohort of women who do not want casual hookups but participate in them anyways — not because they want to but because they feel it is their only option as the culture becomes more and more normalized.

Thus, those women situated in the gray area are not liberating themselves but, rathergiving men a free pass. What many women want is a genuine connection — a relationship where you are so comfortable you can do anything in front of that person — yet they find themselves going home with strangers after nights out at the bar.

This, unfortunately, paves the way for a form of anti-feminism. When we force ourselves to mold to societal norms, we are not making a choice anymore, and the line between what we actually want and what we are supposed to want becomes even more blurry.

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This dichotomy creates an interesting conflict. For college students, we are left with feminism question of addressing hookup culture in our daily lives, the question of what to do with these social pressures and, for those displeased with the culture, the question of making choices without more info to judge women who do choose to embrace hookup culture for their own reasons.

From wanting casual hookups to wanting long-term relationships, opening up to one another about our genuine desires will only serve to help us maintain open conversation and be honest with ourselves. Sex education should not only emphasize the logistical aspects of safe sex, consent and all the other ins-and-outs but should also emphasize the emotional spectrum on which sex lies.

Aside from the challenge of fostering effective sexual conversation and education, people in the dating pool face another cumbersome challenge: with hookup culture comes the feeling that love and relationships are unattainable prospects. It is fair to note that we are faced with the trivial, but all too real, stressors that have arisen due to technology.

Essentially, social media and technology in general provide an outlet for relationship insecurities and overthinking that make genuine connections even more difficult to foster. Good relationships require respect, trust, vulnerability, communication, commitment and the willingness to take someone else into account. Any context where these ways of relating are encouraged will likely also foster relationships.

It all boils down to surrounding yourself with the energy and people you want to attract. Though it works out for some people, many of us are not going to find love in a fraternity basement or on a night out at the this web page. In fact, fraternities hookup to uphold a high ratio of women to men at their parties, and bars are more likely to turn away men than women for similar purposes.

Both of these contexts are breeding grounds for feminism up, and, of course, they work to the advantage of the patriarchy; men are given more convenient options to sort through when this ratio exists, therefore sending them into an advantageous position of power. Thus it is no surprise that many women are left with no other option than to tolerate our misogynistic society or assimilate into it. We all have culture power to do hookup we want with whoever we want, not only with our bodies, but feminism our emotional standing and genuine desires.

'Coercion and Conformity and Despair': A Feminist Critique of Hooking Up

Anna Trupiano is an Opinion Columnist and can be reached at annatrup umich. Skip to content Culture » Opinion » The dark side of hookup culture for women. Design by Francie Ahrens. Buy this photo. Related articles.