Physical Relationships Without Morality Don't Work

Written By: Nancy Pearcey  |  Posted: Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

It's become an Internet sensation: Duke grad Karen Owen created a mock Senior Thesis offering a faux scientific analysis of 13 hookup partners-complete with bar graphs to quantify and rank the sexual attributes of her "subjects."
Owen claims the project was a joke. But underlying the humor is an objectified and depersonalizing view of sexuality-one that is disturbingly widespread.

A recent survey in Contexts found that by the end of college, 72% of both men and women have engaged in hooking up, purely physical encounters with no expectation of any personal relationship. "What makes hooking up unique is that its practitioners agree that there will be no commitment, no exclusivity, no feelings, " explains a Washington Post article.
Hookup partners are sometimes called "friends with benefits, " but they're typically not even friends. The unwritten etiquette is that you never meet to talk or spend time together, says the New York Times. "You just keep it purely sexual, and that way people don't have mixed expectations, and no one gets hurt."

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