Hookup Culture

Everyday, there seems to be new articles surfacing about Millennials and their tendency to destroy everything. From marriage to owning a home, this generation has ruined it. Another topic of interest that people have been blaming millennials for ruining is sex. Many people believe that because casual sex is more talked about now, people no longer care about love and intimacy, thus, sex is becoming less important to people. Of course, this rhetoric seems to appeal to older generations, the same people who believe that women are too "promiscuous" nowadays. However, the idea that people do not crave emotional connection that tends to come with sex couldn't be more wrong.

Sexual liberation for women has been beneficial in that it has allowed women to express their sexuality freely, but not necessarily without consequences. With sexual liberation has come things like "revenge porn" in which people use women's (or, anyone's really) nudes against them in order to humiliate and demonize them. Slut shaming has been a huge problem that has only recently been discussed, and people are now beginning to realize that women are allowed to sleep with whomever they desire as long as it is consensual. The idea that women are not pure once they have lost their virginity (which is simply a social construct to allow men to feel as though they have some sort of power over women, as if they own them, but that's another story) is toxic, and leads to more people being embarrassed when it comes to discussing things like sexual wellness and education.

When people are too embarrassed to buy condoms or get tested for STDs or ask their doctor about birth control, it can lead to unwanted pregnancies or needing to seek treatment for infections. Parents being too afraid to talk to their child about sex can hinder them in the future as well. Children rely on their parents so much for education, more than a lot of guardians realize. Abstinence-only sex education is also detrimental to a child's ability to make conscious, healthy decisions when it comes to sexual wellness. Talking to kids about sex should not be looked at as taboo, but instead as something that should be universally accepted and followed.

People also claim that hook-up culture has made it difficult for people to be in mutually respectful and loving relationships, but I have not found this to be the case. In my experience, as long as you discuss at the beginning of a relationship what you are looking for, i.e., casual sex or a serious relationship, there is not a reason as to how hook-up culture is affecting your relationship.

Hooking up with people rather than being in committed relationships is often looked at as "dirty," but people who are not looking to be in serious relationships are not any less of people. I have been in committed relationships throughout my life, and have been with people who hooked up casually with people before we started dating. Their past had no effect on our relationship, because we are adults and are able to look past our each other's previous partners because it no longer matters. As long as you get regularly tested, there should be no reason for the stigma behind hooking up.

Regardless of the articles and discussions surrounding hook-up culture and how is it unnatural, things like this will continue to happen. Casual sex is not just a new phenomena, it is instead just more recently talked about openly. Because people are getting more comfortable with talking about sex does not mean that all of this is new. Of course, it is our decision, as the people who hook-up culture is most common in, to decide whether or not this trend of casual sex is going to be maintained.