RE: Straight Privileged Female Hook-up Culture

Or, “Sex on campus: she can play that game too”

This recent NY Times article has caused quite a storm, with people claiming it over-generalizes college women, or slut-shames, or discounts LGBT culture, or unwisely takes male hook-up culture for granted. Taylor responded to the criticism via an interview. Here’s my response to the criticism.

I don’t think Taylor was trying to say “this is how all Penn women view sex”, but rather “there are a growing number of college-aged straight women who embrace (whether reluctantly or emphatically) this hook-up culture and here is their story.” She didn’t have room to write an article on “the unabridged story of college love and sex” - so she focused on a specific niche.

I don’t see anything inherently wrong with her choice on this.

And while I get the greater feminist argument here, I still think hook-up culture as it pertains to young straight college women is an interesting and important discussion to have. I also think hook-up culture as it pertains to young straight college men is an interesting and perhaps even more important discussion to have (given young men’s fucked up view of their entitlement to sex) but that’s up to the editor to decide.

For every article written, there are a million other articles that could have been written (LGBT hook-ups, interracial hookups, TA/student hookups…). An article shouldn’t be judged on what it leaves out, but rather on if the story it chooses to tell has merit. IMHO, this one does.