In today’s society, hookup culture is a big part of the lifestyles of many. More people are hooking up instead of dating and having sex before marriage, which is not the traditional route older generations took in their younger years. Although many of our parents and grandparents have a lot to say about hookup culture and profess the dangers of such behavior, it seems that even people within the millennial generation have judgmental things to say – for women participants more than men.

It’s difficult for women today to participate in the culture we helped to create, and men don’t make it any easier. Men very commonly ask women how many partners she’s had before having sex with them, because if a girl has had sex with a certain number of other men prior, she is considered used and no longer a hot commodity.

But why aren’t men treated the same way? Women are chastised and judged for having sex with multiple partners, but men are just looked at as “playing the field” or “keeping their options open.” It seems as though our society is letting a man be a man, but governing women’s behavior in order to increase their desirability.

Hookup culture today seems it is only beneficial to men. Men are allowed to do and say as they please, but if women practice the same methods of communication and lifestyle, they are assumed to be dirty or rude. Now, I think that hookup culture is a way for our generation to seek out a potential partner, or to even just have fun while in college, but I think that the way in which we shame women for it is unequal and discriminatory.

Men are not better than women, and therefore don’t deserve to reap more social benefits than women when it comes to having sex with more than one partner. Women are not dirty and should be labeled by any inappropriate term just because they have sex as much as men do.

It feels like society tells women they can have sex, as long as it is with one person and they don’t flaunt their activity in public or in open dialogue. Men, on the other hand, are allowed to freely express their sexuality in every setting and discussion without dealing with negative stereotypes or repercussions. In this way, women are inherently not allowed to participate in hookup culture, unless they are willing to face negative and unnecessary consequences.

This doesn’t seem right to me.

Karly Dunn is a Collegian contributor and can be reached at [email protected].