Are college students turning into Victorian spinsters? Perhaps they always were.
A news study by the American Sociological Association claims students don't respect peers who they think "hook up too much." In a victory for feminism however, students generally hold men and women in equally little regard for being too cavalier in matters of the heart. Playboys are as bad as playgirls, etc., etc.
The study surveyed 19,000 college students at 22 different colleges and asked them a series of questions about their sexual attitudes. Based on their answers, the study was able to draw conclusions on how they felt about the morality of sex.
The stats breakdown was essentially this: 48 percent of the college students judged men and women equally harshly for promiscuity (54 percent females and over 35 percent of males), 27 percent didn't care what people did with their bodies, almost 12 percent lost respect for women, but not men; and 13 percent lost respect for men.
Men however, were far more likely than women to hold a "traditional double standard" i.e. they felt that women who hook up a lot are worse than men that hook up a lot. 25 percent of men felt this way, compared to only 6 percent of women. Frat boys were even more likely to feel this way, with 37 percent involved in Greek life reported having this attitude. In fairness, sorority sisters were the most likely to hold a "reverse double standard," which means they think men are worse than women for hooking up all the time.
“Women who hold to this reverse double standard are invoking a kind of gender justice,” sociology professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-author of the study Barbara Risman said in a press release. “They are critical of men who treat women badly and they do not accept a ‘boys will be boys’ view of male sexuality.”
More fissures emerged in the data over religion, sexuality and region. Catholics were more likely than Jewish or Buddhist students to judge sleeping around pejoratively, but they were more tolerant than their evangelical peers. Homosexual students were found to be far less judgmental over sexual behavior than heterosexuals. West coast students were the most lenient in terms of sex, midwestern students the most conservative and east coast students wound up somewhere in the middle.
Millenials, often referred to as 'the hook-up generation" are pretty conflicted about sex, it turns out. A recent Her Campus survey even asserted that more women were waiting until college to lose their virginity.
So, what do you think? Do you judge your peers for hooking up? Should you? Tell us in the comments section.