In recent years, the stiff routine of a boy courting a girl has been replaced by quick and temporary physical satisfaction, known as the hookup culture.
In this new culture, not just the males are skipping the formalities. Women have taken over the culture, diving into it as eagerly as frat boys who keep tallies of how many girls they can get.
In some ways, this loss of tradition can seem somewhat tragic.
“Maybe they’re all the better for it (the hookup culture),” said Caitlin Flanagan in an article for the Atlantic. “Or maybe an awful lot of these young women at our very best colleges are being traumatized by what takes place during so much of this mindless, drunken partying when they’re steeped in alcohol, which brings out the least engaging aspects of their young selves.”
But would reverting to the old ways be better for women? Probably not.
Although the hookup culture has seen the loss of the beauty of a simple date, it also reflects a rise in power for women. Most women who engage in this culture are focused on achieving success in a career before settling down and having a family, showing that women are looking toward a bright future, whether or not they have a man.
“The hookup culture is too bound up with everything that’s fabulous about being a young woman in 2012 — the freedom, the confidence, the knowledge that you can always depend on yourself,” said Hanna Rosin in an article for the Atlantic.
This strength is admirable and something that all women should be proud of, but is going all the way with every guy who comes along and then enforcing a double standard about sexual activity the way to show feminine power?
I think not.
When a male brags about all the girls he has slept with, it becomes obvious that he is only using them. So should it not be the same for females who have a list just as long?
Look at recent Duke graduate Karen Owen, whose senior thesis was a PowerPoint presentation comparing 13 athletes with whom she had sexual encounters. Her display was explicit and crude in its in-depth detail about each “subject.”
She degrades the “subjects” and claims that they were only using her, but in reality, she was only using them as well. She condemns them for exercising sexual freedom, but glorifies herself for exercising that same freedom.
Women should enjoy the freedom that we have and be proud of our accomplishments, revel in being young, and make decisions for ourselves. College is our time to do this and, in doing so, we remind ourselves of the progress of women as a whole — as we should.
We have overcome a double standard that for so long claimed that only men could enjoy sexual freedom; however, now we must respect everyone’s right to make their own decisions about hooking up and not pass judgment on those who choose to participate.
Still, in this new age of female power, we run the risk of changing from the oppressed to the oppressors. We should exercise our rights, but all of the women who fought for those rights did not intend for us to abuse them. They would be ashamed if the modern woman became the exact evil that they fought against so vehemently.
