Ultimately, Wade argued, there is a need for institutional change. Hookup culture also relies greatly on popularity, and creates biases against race and sexual orientation, causing problems of exclusion. She said hookup culture plays a part in sexual assaults on campuses - consent can be thought of as caring too much. Men assume women are extra into them, so they have a stiff arm, and women don’t want to seem that way, so they develop a stiff upper lip.”ĭespite efforts to be casual, Wade said her research showed 75 percent of college students actually want to be in relationships. “Whenever women perform casualness, they’re somehow less believable than men. “If sex is supposed to mean nothing, then everything else has more meaning,” said Wade, noting how hand-holding or even not having sex could be more meaningful than having it. Wade then listed four strategies many students use to enforce hookup culture: be drunk be hot, but not warm keep cool or aloof and don’t hook up too many times with the same person or risk entering relationship territory. “Of course,” said Wade, “students break these rules all the time.” “That threatens the idea that this doesn’t mean anything,” she said.

She also said that for a hookup to occur, two people have to choose each other. Wade said that to “do” casual, sex remains emotionless, but humans are inherently emotional, as is sex. “This is not actually easy, and you have to work really hard to make it happen.” “It’s thinking about sex as a zero-sum game,” she said.

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