Hookup Culture

Institutions

While many of our respondents recounted experiences of their “Asianness” impacting their engagement with hookup culture through describing specific experiences with other members of the Vanderbilt community, it is clear that several overarching institutional forces are also at play. That is, although personal biases and attitudes of non-Asian students undoubtedly influence the experiences of Asian American individuals, it is also valuable to think about where these attitudes might stem from and how they are reinforced and perpetuated by systems in place.

The first, and perhaps arguably most important, institution in play is the media and popular culture. It is no secret that Hollywood is predominantly white, but Asian Americans

First, the lack of Asian American participation in hookup culture cannot be entirely attributed to cultural differences. Although many respondents reported coming from conservative upbringings, most did not feel that this upbringing prevented them from hooking up. Second, nearly all respondents reported instances of sexualized racism as they engaged with hookup culture at Vanderbilt. For females, this often took the form of feeling eroticized or tokenized. In contrast, males reported feeling undesired and emasculated relative to their white peers. Further, institutions at play both create and perpetuate these controlling images and sexual scripts based on racially gendered stereotypes of Asian Americans. Overall, the limited representations of Asians in mainstream media and popular culture depict all Asians as overly feminine, a trait that oversexualizes women and desexualizes men. Such stereotypes and tropes are reinforced at Vanderbilt through Greek Life, which systematically polices appropriate sexuality amongst Asian American

Our respondents’ experiences show how Asian American men and women experience hookup culture in unique ways. It is therefore imperative that further research on racial inequality in hookup culture be conducted. Future research might further explore the effects of acculturation on Asian American students. Moreover, although our study primarily at the experiences of Chinese and Korean Americans, it is likely that other groups also experience hookup culture in ways that are highly informed by their race. Future research might also examine the experiences of Asians not born in the United