Hookup Culture

This is an extremely well written opinion piece on the culture of "hooking up" in college. In it, the author makes very valid points about the way that hooking up makes us feel, and why it makes us feel that way. He argues that most of the pleasure people derive from hooking up still comes from the intimacy we feel in the situation, and that sex and emotional attachment are permanently tied. 

The relevance of this article is spot-on. His examples and anecdotes fit the situation precisely. His audience is college students, so his examples detail things that do go on in college hook-up culture. He puts the reader in situations many college students have found themselves in and simply asks them: where is the pleasure coming from? People who have been in the situation can recall their previous experiences, and people who haven't still get a good idea of what he's talking about.

His claims are also very sufficient. Like I said, he gives numerous examples, all touching on a slightly different part of the culture and drawing pretty much the same conclusions from all of them. He argues that the emotional attachment is there because the pleasure comes from the exclusivity of the moment, the fact that the other person is giving themselves to only you, and he also argues that based on that, the more that commitment gets detached from sex the less it means anything. One by one throughout his piece, he attempts to destroy all credible reasons why hooking-up is a good thing. It attempts to detach sex from commitment and fails, it demeans women (who throws away her sexual power--the ability to refuse sex until a man proves himself to her), and it's claims of "no-strings-attached" attempts to convince us that love is divorced from sex.

The argument is also very open. He's not trying to demean others who choose to hook-up, but instead convince them that maybe they should rethink why hooking up makes them feel so good. If it really is the exclusivity and emotional connection that gives them pleasure, why not pursue a serious relationship? Based on the article, I'm sure someone who disagreed with any of his points would have room for a discussion with Jack Grimes, as it seems he is genuinely interested in the issue of the hook-up, and not just his opinion on it.