Hooking Up : Sex, Dating, and Relationships on Campus by Kathleen A. Bogle

that’s the only thing I can see that would make any other school different.
    KB : What’s the “no penetration” rule? I never heard of that.
    Jack : Apparently you’re not allowed to have sex on campus; if you do you’re thrown out of school.

    58
    T H E H O O K U P S C E N E
    KB : Is that right? Has that ever happened to anyone? How would anyone know if you did [have sex] or not?
    Jack : An RA walking down the hall hears a girl moaning in her room or hears the bed banging against the wall or your next door neighbor calls security, anything.
    KB : Is that something people are worried about, that they are going to get caught? Do people not have sex in the dorms because of that?
    Jack : No, they definitely do, they are just a little more careful. It’s not announced as much. If you live off campus, it’s like:
    “Who did you bring home last night, I heard the wall shak-ing?” It’s just kind of understood, on campus is definitely tougher.
    Thus, there are no campus policies, at least none that were strictly en-forced, that keep college students from having easy “late night” access to one another.
    Since many residence halls and off-campus housing are within walking distance of a bar, party, or other social event that college students attend, students can go to one another’s residence to hook up without violating the taboo of getting in a car with a stranger. Students also generally travel in groups; therefore, a friend is never far away. If a college woman wants to get away from a college man who is trying to hook up with her, she can often rely on her friends to help her out of a difficult situation. Many of the college women I interviewed spoke of
    “safety in numbers” and “keeping an eye on one another” to help avoid potentially dangerous situations with men. In some cases, a specific woman would be asked to stay sober for the evening to make sure
    “nothing bad happened” to any of her friends who were drinking alcohol. Living in close proximity to fellow classmates often makes students, especially women, feel safe engaging in a hookup.
    A final issue, which makes college campuses an environment conducive to hooking up, is the attention college students pay to what the others are doing. No doubt many college students, particularly during freshman year, are very anxious to be a part of the social scene on campus. Not many people are comfortable being an outcast, nor do they want to be labeled as different than everybody else. Therefore, one of the reasons college students follow the hookup script is likely to be their desire to fit in. The students I interviewed also said that discussing what T H E H O O K U P S C E N E
    59
    other students were doing sexually was a common pastime. Thus, who hooked up with whom as well as how far the hookup went sexually is often a topic of conversation among college friends. As Kyle put it:
    “When I am around my friends I say: ‘Did you do it?’ They say: ‘Yeah I had sex.’ . . . We are pretty candid with each other so they will clarify
    [what happened sexually], unless she is ugly or something. Then they won’t tell you, because they are going to get their balls busted.” The pervasiveness of the hookup culture on campus may stem from the lack of privacy and the gossipy nature of life in college. Students are aware of what their classmates do to socialize, form relationships and engage in sexual encounters; and many may go along with hooking up because that’s the thing to do.
    WHO IS HOOKING UP?
    The hookup culture transcends gender, grade level, and institution. Both men and women on the college campuses I studied took part in the hookup system. Additionally, hooking up was not limited to any particular grade level, although a few students suggested that it was more prevalent freshman year. The hookup script was also not confined to one particular campus; in fact, it was pervasive on both campuses I studied.
    The universities I studied had some