Review of Studies on Hooking Up

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Hooking up has become an increasingly studied culture by many sociologists around the country. These studies have been done to understand the shift from the old culture of dating to the new culture of hooking up that we experience now. Many people find it interesting that the kids of our generation have become so sexualized and carefree compared to the college days of our parents. Many people wonder how we got to this point and how the dynamics of hookups work, and why we continue to go on with them even sometimes at cost of our mental and physical help. One of these people was Kathleen A. Bogle, who wrote an entire book on the subject called, Hooking Up: Sex, Dating, and Relationships on Campus, which is the focal point of this essay.
Bogle has many specific arguments in her book on hooking up and they all seem to be investigated in a well mannered way. The main argument of this book is that our generation has moved away from the ideas of the old generation's so called “dating ear” to idea of our own, which are considered a “hookup era” In her book she states that many kids on campus these days prefer to hookup rather than date, and that these hookups can mean many different things to many different people. Some of the people interviewed saw hooking up as only a means of sexual pleasure, while some saw it as a way of starting a relationship with somebody. Bogle also argues that hooking up is an extremely ambiguous term, and can mean anything from kissing to some people, all the way to sex or a friends with benefits situation for others. She also argues that hooking up means different things to both men and women (Bogle 2008). The way our generation goes about these hookups is explained frequently in the book and gives people a w...

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...lture and its dynamic. Even still, much is to learned in the area of study, and many things will most certainly soon be discovered. In conclusion, Bogle has an ideal book for those interested in discovering more about the culture of our generation's ideals of hooking up.

Works Cited

1) Bogle, K. A. (2008). Hooking up: sex, dating, and relationships on campus. New York: New York University Press.
2) Manthos, M., Owen, J., & Ficham, F. (2013). A new perspective on hooking up among college students: Sexual behavior as a function of distinct groups. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 30, 1-15. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from the Sage Journals database.
3) Kalsih, R., & Kimmel, M. (2011). Hooking Up: Hot Hetero Sex or the New Numb Normative?. Australian Feminist Studies, 26(67), 137-151. Retrieved April 19, 2014, from the Sociological Abstracts database.

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