<p>@barrons </p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I completely agree.</p>
<p>Of course premarital sex has always occurred. But, back in my day, by the time a (non-trashy) girl got married, she didn’t have a sex partner rap list the length of her arm. </p>
<p>My grandmother (born in the late 1800’s) used to say…meh…it’s all been done in the royal courts of Europe long before those ‘hippies’ came up with the idea…
:)) </p>
<p>Wow . . . trashy girls with “rap lists” . . . I guess the judginess continues. I feel fortunate to have found a husband who was willing to take me on! 
</p>
<p>^agree saintfan! M2CK, I know where you are from and what era…girls nay have wanted to look like good girls…but come on, seriously? There was just as much hooking up back then…just maybe a lot of one night stands, the walk of shame and then pretending it didn’t happen. To think otherwise is denial.</p>
<p>@GA2012MOM </p>
<p>I am NOT saying that girls from my era didn’t have sex. What I am saying is that the so-called nice girls from my era didn’t sleep with 25+ guys before they got married. And one-night stands were more of a one-off. If what’s been described today is going on, then girls will now have belts with 100+ notches on them by the time they settle down.</p>
<p>And before anyone thinks I’m calling out girls, the same goes for boys. Guys who slept around were considered to be users.</p>
<p>Based on the kids I know your current numbers are inflated.</p>
<p>The following question was asked of parents during an incoming Freshman orientation session - how many sex partners do you think the average college student has during their years of attendance. The group of middle age attendees came up with double digit guesses. But surprise surprise…the answer, based on anonymous answers given by actual students, was… 2! </p>
<p>Hook up schmook up…probably not as big of a deal for either gender (or is it sex?) but more of a rallying cry for two fringe sides.</p>
<p>Here’s a 20 year study of college students and their sex lives: <a href=“Quick Facts on Findings | Sex Lives of College Students”>http://sexlivesofcollegestudents.com/fact-sheet/quick-facts-on-findings/</a></p>
<p>No change since the 90s in number of sex partners BUT condom use and hormonal contraception has increased (good job, college students!) </p>
<p><a href=“Study: College students aren’t having more sex than in ’80s, ’90s”>http://www.pressherald.com/2013/08/13/study-college-students-arent-having-more-sex/</a></p>
<p>Another study (in the article) that says we haven’t changed since the 80s. </p>
<p>Why is it so important for many people to believe that this “hook-up culture” exists? We have threads almost weekly on this topic. </p>
<p>I study the history of sexuality. Nothing has really changed in regards to sex outside of marriage since young people started living away from their parents (early 20th century). And things REALLY got heated up with the invention and spread of the car and movies. Even in the “innocent” 50s, at least 90% of people were not virgins when they married. </p>
<p>The only thing that’s really changed in sex is that women are now encouraged to actually enjoy sex rather than to be ashamed of their bodies and sexual pleasure. To which I say: halle-freaking-lujah! </p>
<p>I don’t like the hook up culture. I have no judgement about people who do, though. I just don’t like it for some reason. </p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Then, if the kids you know are typical, then it’s not typical for kids to have one-night stands on any sort of regular basis…which has been my point about the years when I was in college. </p>
<p>If you do the math, if a person thinks nothing about “hooking up” and having casual sex during the years of age 18 and the time say settle-down (say age 28ish), then by that time, they will have had 50-100 sex partners…and for me, that is way too many. </p>
<p>m2ck, where on earth are you pulling these numbers from? </p>
<p>The average number of sex partners during college is 3-4. The vast, VAST majority of those in college will have sex (in the high 90s) before they leave college. Doing the math, the number of those with 50-100 partners is such a small outlier that I’d be more worried about getting hit by a tornado than marrying someone with that many partners (and really, unless you’re marrying or dating them, I don’t see why you’d care about their # of past partners). </p>
<p>Furthermore, it’s not like most people are “single” until they marry at 28. Most people cohabitate and are in mutually monogamous relationships long before marriage so they “settle down” younger than that. </p>
<p>Most people aren’t swinging singles for 10+ years. As was addressed before, most young people who don’t have one or two long terms partners still have fairly short phases of playing the field. It isn’t uncommon to dabble after a long term HS or early college relationship. Maybe it’s the sex version of the freshman 15 before cooler heads prevail. </p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I’m not pulling them from a source. I’m just saying that if the hook-up culture is frequent (and has always been frequent and not a one-off) and therefore each weekend these kids are bedding down with virtual strangers, then logically after several years of such behavior (or even just 4 years of such behavior), the person will have slept with 50-100 people.</p>
<p>Do I think that is going on with the typical college kid? No…and I don’t think it went on in my day, either. </p>
<p>Instead I think that occasionally, a typical kid might have a one-off hook-up…likely the result of bad judgement and booze. I think it’s more typical for college kids to have BFs and GFs for a period of several months or more…and then they move on to another BF or GF for a period of several months or more. </p>
<p>If large numbers of random “hook-ups” are as rare as you say, then, I would argue that it would be better called “the hook-up sub-culture”. </p>
<p>Romani’s link makes an interesting point that today’s generation has increasingly separated sex from love. Maybe that’s the real difference with hookup culture, not the number of partners, but the attitude of relative indifference towards the partners. Way too many college women are faking orgasms according to that fact sheet too. Perhaps some women need the feeling of romantic love and the communication that can come with it in order to reach orgasm? I’m surprised so few couples are using both the pill and condoms. I’ve really stressed that point with kids, the pill is great but it has to be paired with condoms for std prevention.</p>