Unhooked- How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both

"It's been nearly 50 years since the pill first revolutionized sex on college campuses and though "free love" may be a thing of the past, a new culture of casual sex, known as "hooking up," has now become the norm."  Laura Sessions Stepp

I remember reading an excerpt of Unhooked in a random woman's magazine. I was intrigued, so I decided to buy it.  It took me awhile to read it. Not because it wasn’t a good read, but because it was a hard read. This book truly showed an accurate picture of the college hook up culture for women. More importantly it challenged me with questions, and left me to figure out the answers.  

An excerpt from the book:

Rapper T.I.’s ­voice—­and more than a few shots of ­liquor—­had hundreds of students buzzed that Saturday night inside the Marvin Center of George Washington University (or GW). Crowded along both sides of an elevated catwalk, waiting for scantily clad freshman women to emerge from a tent at one end, the students sang along with the music:

Who set the city on fire as soon as he got freed

Da king back now, ho’s ­don’t even know how to act now

Hit the club strippers gettin’ naked ’fore I sit down

Bring ’em out! Bring ’em out!

Out they came, one act after another, eighteen- and ­nineteen-­year-­old Division I athletes, ranging from passably pretty to ­drop-­dead gorgeous, putting themselves up for bid at the annual “date auction” sponsored by GW’s student athletic council. Big white bidding cards popped up immediately. Fifty dollars for a night on the town with a couple of lacrosse players! ­Seventy-­five dollars for members of the crew team!

The water polo players, dressed in swim parkas and strappy black stilettos, brought down the house. They had been practicing polo for eight months, s
pending thirty hours a week in the pool. Their season over, they left little question in anyone’s mind that they were ready to party.

Bumping and grinding to a new rap number, they ripped off their jackets to reveal short ­nightgowns—­see-­through black, with pink polka ­dots—­over black bras and lacy fuchsia boy shorts.

Fifty dollars! The bidding began. 

 

I met my current roommate at one of these auctions. At the time she was just a freshman. I remember standing next to my friend Scotty.  As the auction began he nudged me and said, "This is the chick I am hooking up with."   Out she walked to a rap song I can no longer remember, dancing and rocking the catwalk.  I often tease her of that night, she always responds with embarrassment. Yet at the ti
me, it was such a good idea. Have fun and get a guys attention. Now we are both in the real world, single, and simply don’t want to behave that way to gain attention.