American Hookup Culture On Campus

American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus by Lisa Wade discusses the truth about hookup culture by observing it on college campus for years, with the help of students sharing their experiences to her. My overall impression of the book is that it is very accurate to college life and the thought process of students and hookup culture. In this essay, I will discuss 3 concepts, corporate campus, racialization in the school system, and conformity, and how these can all relate to life on campus and the book I choose to read, American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus.

Corporate campus is the concept of how campus has become a place for marketing. There are 4 ways that campuses are places for advertising. Universities have become sites

At every school, there is always going to be a stereotype for racialized students. It is also common that there are lower expectations for black students. (T. Davidson, personal communications, Feburary-05-2018). Students of color are more likely to be low-income therefore they are twice more likely to be arrested for drug crimes and less likely to get an abortion. Because of this, students of color tend to avoid risky situations including drinking, which lowers their chances of participating in hookup culture to avoid the risk of getting trouble at college (Wade, 2017, p. 95). This can also be applied to hookup culture on campus and not just in education. In American Hookup, Jaslene stated that hooking up was not for black people because black females do not fit the conventional standard of beauty. In college, there is a hierarchy of sexual desirability, which she also called the erotic marketplace. Those who are privileged in the erotic marketplace tend to express sexual preferences that reflect the hierarchy. For example, someone who is white may not be attracted to black women and be only attracted to white people. Men of color are stereotyped to be hypersexual so they may abstain from hooking up because they think they cannot get away with the same aggressiveness that white men have. Women of color were also hypersexualized and were given names to describe their sexiness. Because of this, students of color tend to not

Conformity is when people comply to groups norms or expectations. We look at groups to understand how we should act, dress, and behave and young people are very aware of those who conform and those who do not (Little et al, 2014, p. 182). College students conform to the norms of college in order to fit in with groups of people and the college life. It is almost like there is unwritten rules of what to expect and what you need to do at college parties or even just the college experience in general. Women feel the need to dress in provocative clothing to parties because every girl does it and they want to be noticed by guys while guys still wear everyday casual clothing. Students feel like they have much more fun at parties while drunk and have much more confidence leading to more hookups. When these parties occur, students are now part of the “drunk world”. As discussed in American Hookup, the drunk world is where it is normal for people to be a drunk mess, flirt, hook up, get sick, dance, sing, etc., and normal sober norms are not accepted. So, these are the norms of a college party and therefore everyone conforms to them to fit in. Those who do not conform to the drunk world, meaning staying sober, are seen as weird, actually stand out more and are questioned by drunk people, and have nothing to offer to the drunk world. Sometimes, students will even fake being drunk in order to fit in because they feel so judged and out of place (Wade,