I Had An Exam on “Hooking Up”
March 15, 2010 | Megan
My dad wasn’t too pleased when he saw the top book on my stack of textbooks was titled “Hooking Up.”
Freshman year I took a Women’s Studies course. Before you role your eyes and start muttering under your breath, I do not wish to take over the world one man-hating moment at a time.
The book “Hooking Up” was one of the books listed as required for the course. I glanced at the book and instantly perked up with interest at the thought of reading something other than chemical formulas and theories. How about reading about theories that actually impact us on a day-to-day basis? I had a criminal justice book where I could learn about the rules of law, and I had this book to help me explore the rules of hooking-up.
Kathleen A. Bogle, the writer of “Hooking Up” travels to both a large university and a small university to study the differences in norms of the hook-up culture. Hooking up is such a broad term. Bogle asks numerous students around campus different questions in order to attempt to define it.
Her findings can’t be considered scientific, because it’s social science, but they are very interesting and show distinct patterns. Bogle studies college undergraduates behaviors and attitudes toward the broad term, and tries to decode what it really means to ‘hook-up.’
It’s more acceptable to use the term in public, because of how general it is. The student using the term is not giving a detailed description of a scandalous night filled with sexual escapades. Instead, when asked whether or not anything happened the night before, the person can shrug and response: “Yeah, we just hooked-up. Nothing special.”
It’s understood that when students “hook-up” something sexual happens, but whether that’s merely spooning, kissing, or actually sealing the deal, is up for discretion. Kathleen A. Bogle’s novel hooked me in as a reader.
Although she can’t necessarily prove statistical facts, her findings from interviews, surveys, and anonymous responses are sure to make the average undergraduate a little curious if their perceptions of “hooking-up” are the same as the students sitting next to them.
Check this out to see what Bogle has to say about “hooking-up.”
