SARU hosts workshop on hookup culture

The Sexual Assault Resource Unit (SARU) hosted the workshop “Hookup Culture: Sexual Freedom or Rape Culture?” on March 7 in Mergenthaler 111. The interactive and discussion-based session was lead by Sherine Andreine Powerful and Ashley J. Hobbs, the campus and communications programs coordinator from Black Women’s Blueprint (BWB).

BWB is a civil and human rights advocacy organization based in New York that works “to develop a culture where women of African descent are fully empowered and where gender, race and other disparities are erased” and engages “in progressive research, historical documentation, policy advocacy and organize on social justice issues steeped in the struggles of Black women within their communities and within dominant culture.” This workshop was the second in a series of three workshops led by BWB.

The goals of the workshop were to understand the complexity of hookup culture, unpack definitions of rape culture and better negotiate sexual freedom and how rape culture manifests on campuses. The sessions also worked to explore methods of fighting rape culture and promote transparent discussion of the topic.

The workshop kicked off with a four corners game as an ice-breaker where participants moved to different corners of the room based on whether they strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed or strongly disagreed with statements like “If someone is willing to make out, then it’s no big deal that the person they’re making out with is pushing for sex” and “Hooking up with someone is no big deal if there are no strings attached.”

Powerful and Hobbs explained why hookup culture is problematic, especially “Netflix and chill,” which can be considered the “catch phrase for hookup culture.” Participants discussed how the concept is heteronormative and focuses on physical pleasure without necessarily including emotional bonding or long-term commitment, with its ambiguity and humorous nature creating negative repercussions.

The reasons hookup culture is problematic were broken down into five categories: lack of focus on women’s pleasure, the standards men are expected to conform to, an emphasis on heavy drinking, the way men talk about women, promoting double sexual standards and the stigmatization of emotions that hurts all genders.

Powerful explained how hookups hurt women, citing data from research studies that show that there is a significant disparity in the quality of orgasms between women and men in casual hookups and that sex in committed relationships is much better for women.

Hookup culture also generates negative repercussions for men by creating unrealistic and toxic expectations. She said that due to the pervasive toxic masculinity men face, they are expected to want casual sex all the time, and they are expected to be easy to please.

There was a popcorn-style discussion about unrealistic and toxic expectations for cis heterosexual men, cis heterosexual women, gender nonconforming individuals, trans* individuals and lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer people, as well as about the origins of those problematic attitudes.

Some of the issues that participants brought up included the fetishization of lesbians and queer women for men’s consumption, the pressure to conform to the gender binary, the hierarchy of masculinities, the unrealistic double standard for women to be both virginal and sexually experienced and the common misconceptions concerning bisexuality.

Sophomore Su Ataman said that this component was her favorite part of the workshop.

“I thought it was really interesting to meet new people and to talk to people about viewpoints they had,” she said.

The presentation also discussed how hookup culture differs between different demographics, such as for black students versus white students and working class students versus middle class students. Much of the research and ideas about hookup culture are based on “white, wealthy, heterosexual, able-bodied and conventionally attractive” students, so it does not always accurately reflect the experiences of students at historically black colleges and universities and first-generation college students.

Junior Christine Fei, the events co-chair for SARU, explained why SARU chose to work with BWB this year.

“[Saakshi Suri], who is one of the co-directors, attended a conference that was led by the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault and it was called the Women of Color Network Conference,” she said. “The executive director of BWB, Farah Tanis, spoke and we were like, ‘Oh my God, what an amazing speaker, we have to get this organization here on campus.’ That’s kind of how we started to get to know about BWB, that’s how we connected.’”

Fei said that she hopes to see BWB on campus again in the future.

“We have some ideas for next year, but we’re not sure. [W]e feel that this conversation is really important and [BWB is] really able to provide this information in a way that’s really engaging and I feel like [is] relevant to everyone in the audience,” she said. “It’s kind of rare; when you talk about consent, people feel like they’re lectured to.”

Fei emphasized that hookup culture should not be a discussion limited to certain groups at Hopkins.

“I think they have a lot of topics that are relevant to other student groups. I mean, obviously I can’t be like, ‘You know, you guys have to bring this group!’ but we thought it was really successful and it would probably work for topics that aren’t necessary related to sexual assault.”

The next session will be “Addressing Sexism Using an Anti-Oppression and Intersectional Framework” on April 20.