Hooking Up: Dating, Sex, And Relationships On Campus By Kathleen Bogle

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When you hear the term “hooking up” you generally think of a sexual encounter with a stranger, but as explained in the book Hooking Up: Dating, Sex, and Relationships on Campus by Kathleen Bogle, this is not the true definition of the term because there is no true definition of the word. Bogle effectively addresses the social issue of hooking up as well as accurately addresses the ambiguity of the term itself in her book as he goes through the history of dating and how things have progressively changed over the last 115 years as well as the atmosphere of the college campus and how it is ideal for hooking up. She moves into the actual hook up and what exactly that consists of, next into the biases between the sexes and then into relationships after college and how they differ from the ones in college.

Bogle begins the book by stating that the books purpose is not to judge the act of hooking up nor does she believe in the false definition that hooking up means having sex. She states that she understands that hooking up can be kissing, can be actual sex, or can be anything in between the two. She states that hooking up is just simply when you are meeting up with a person of the other sex and having these casual encounters but not embarking on dates nor requiring any type of commitment from the other person.

Then, she moves into the history of dating starting in about the 1900s with the calling era. During the calling era, the woman was in charge. The girl and her mother would talk about a boy and if the mother saw him as fit, she would call him to come over and he would meet the family. If he was approved by the woman’s family, then the end result was marriage. This would only happen in wealthier households at this time because t...

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...are seen as objects so as long as they are not the ones that are taking advantage of the situation then it makes it okay. Men are expected to take advantage of women so when they are out hooking up with women they are not looked at negatively but if women go out and do that then they are going to be. This is the double standard that is started in college and leads into the latter years. Women feel the need to dress nice for men and compete with one another but at the same time they are still expected not to be “easy”. As women continue to jump from partner to partner, they are reducing their chances of finding the long-term relationship that they are truly longing for. Bogle says that excluding couples can develop but that they are rare, which is strange if you look around a campus like Texas A&M University where you see tons of engagements and marriages happening.

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