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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CMU chapter.

According to Her Campus’s Ultimate Girl Survey in 2012, roughly 85% of college women that responded claim to have “hooked up” with someone. Not exactly a shocker, but a hookup qualified as “makeout or more” leaves much to the imagination in terms of what is actually going on under the covers. In the same survey with information gathered from 2,589 girls age 17-23 from 677 colleges across the country, 43% of respondents claimed to still be holding onto their v-cards. Suddenly, the idea of a “hookup” is starting to look a little vague.

Granted, you never know who’s filling out those gosh-darn surveys, but it raises the question of whether the sample pool was skewed or if people were being straight up dishonest. Not that anyone’s personal business should be announced to the rest of the world, but there is something to be said about the ambiguity behind college “hookup” culture.

In college vernacular, we use the term “hookup” as such a broad concept that it could mean anything from kissing to having sex. People seem to use that ambiguity to their advantage because the general connotation is all the same; regardless of the specific kind of interaction, “hooking up” denotes getting physical satisfaction from somebody else while not being in a committed relationship. Obviously, there is pride held behind successfully reeling in somebody attractive, but then again there’s also the stigma that comes along with coming off as “too easy” or having “lower standards.” Keeping it vague can easily used as a safeguard to hide from others’ judgment.

Now-a-days, there is a pretty fine line between what is socially commendable and what is going too far because everyone has their own opinion and standards. It’s possible that much of the anxiety about what others think derives from a deeper insecurity of knowing what you are personally comfortable with. And sometimes, discovering that really does take some experimenting.

In college “hookup” land, people are generally categorized as one of two things: a tortoise or a hare. The gist is that you either prefer dating and taking it slow, or you prefer just skipping to the finish line and HOPPING into somebody’s pants (see what I did there?). You may even switch roles at different points in your life — the point is, when you’re out on a Saturday night looking for somebody to pass the time with, you are aiming to drive in either the fast lane or the slow lane.

Before you shut your eyes and ram your foot down on the gas petal, maybe take a minute to qualify yourself as a worthy candidate for the lane you want to drive in. The bizarre thing about college “hookup” culture is that despite the preferences and rules we set as our standards, we hurtle ourselves down this sexual highway, careening in every which direction at alternating speeds. A tailspin is likely to occur at some point. Even though you have the capability of driving at any speed that your car can physically handle, it’s more important that you focus straight ahead and go at your own pace instead of trying to keep up with the other cars driving by. Similarly, if someone else in front of you is going at grandpa-speed, it might be in your interest to find another car that matches your pace. Just remember to drive safe and stay protected. With a seat belt of course.

Photo credits:
http://weheartit.com/entry/688…
http://weheartit.com/entry/341…

Laura Stiles is a Creative Writing, Professional Writing double major at Carnegie Mellon University who will be graduating in May 2014. In addition to being Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Carnegie Mellon chapter of HerCampus.com, she is Co-Prose Editor of The Oakland Review, Carnegie Mellon’s literary-arts journal, a manuscript reader for Carnegie Mellon University Press, and has copy-edited for Carnegie Mellon’s newspaper, The Tartan. She was also Communications and Arts Management Intern at The Hillman Center for Performing Arts in summer 2012, and is ecstatic to be studying abroad in Sheffield, England in spring 2013. In her free time, she enjoys singing along to music on long car rides, spontaneously kicking off her shoes to explore lakes and creeks, and curling up with a soft blanket and a captivating book. She was also recently pleasantly surprised to discover that she has a taste for sushi.