A one night stand, a booty call, casual sex. Whatever expression you use, they are all a part of hook-up culture, and it is unsurprisingly huge. In many surveys on the topic, more than 60% of participants indicate that they have had at least one example of a hookup in their past.
With the advent of dating apps, the culture has taken on a new life today. But, is hookup culture healthy for us?
To get some insight on the matter, I spoke with Nicole Cormier. Cormier is a clinical psychologist and is self-described as sex-positive. She says there can be many benefits to hookup culture.
“I think it can be very positive and very self-affirming. I think it’s just about feeling like you’re confident, you’re kind of like in control of your own sexual needs. That you can go out there and look for what you want and find it. That you’re comfortable communicating what it is that pleases you and not feeling like you need to be tied down to a particular emotional relationship in order to get your sexual needs met. I think there’s something that feels really autonomous and good about that.”
But its not always a positive experience for those involved in hookups. Cormier explains where hookup culture can go wrong.
“There are some potential pitfalls with hookup culture and I think that the two places where problems could arise are around the issue of affirmative consent and whether or not affirmative consent is present during the hookup. The second issue which is kind of related is how good is the person or the people involve sex education where do they get it from and did they get it from pornography exclusively.
“Up until the me-too movement, consent and public announcements in public information about consent were centred around the idea of no means no. What has become really apparent since the me-too movement is that that’s not enough. Women and men both can be in a number of situations where they for whatever reason don’t feel comfortable saying no. They don’t feel like they can say no to the sexual activity.”
Jose Smith is a student at Fanshawe College who has had his fair share of run-ins with hook up culture in the past. He says there are a handful of negative experiences and outcomes he has had with dating apps.
“It’s really annoying because you want to be with that person but they have other intentions and they don’t come across as if they want to do that. It kind of sucks when you realize they just want me for sex. It sucks, you don’t feel good for a while. Like, why am I not good enough to like be more than a hookup.”
Whether you’re meeting in a club or meeting on a dating app, it seems that hookup culture can be a positive experience as long as a few criteria are met. There needs to be open communication about both party’s intentions as well as explicit and continued consent.
