Rosin’s documentation of hook-up culture outlines an avid act that many college students, teens, and young adults as a whole feel inclined to participate in; the main reasons being would be to obtain the physical advantages of having a significant other without being emotionally attached to anyone. Hookup culture allows more and more people to focus on their careers rather than having a family. Though the aspect of why people participate in hookup culture is reversed in earlier times, it has still existed on smaller scales and afforded as a luxury to men and a means to an end for women. Throughout this essay, I will analyze how other authors such as Somerville and Chauncey would have reacted and commented on the concept of hookup culture and how it is present within the time that they are writing their respective pieces.
Rosin’s article is more geared towards those who deem themselves heterosexual which is an aspect that both Chauncey and Somerville might critique about the article. Rosin’s piece discussed why women in the modern world are now choosing to engage in the so-called hook-up culture but speaks nothing to why people of the LGBTQ+ community might want to. Thus being said looking past these critiques, I will be discussing how Chauncey and Somerville would interpret hookup culture as if this article was fluid for everyone.
As hook-up culture is a relatively new idea, especially in regards to women, it is not a relatively new idea to men or fairies as outline in Chauncey’s article. In much of the sense of how Rosin outlined and investigated hook-up culture, Chauncey did the same thing. Chauncey focused on how fairies had relations and were looked at in 20th century New York. The fairies being referred to as the “third sex” having the body of a man but a mind of a woman, is detrimental in defining their sexuality today and their sexuality then (Chauncey, 48). How Chauncey investigated these constructs is similar to how Rosin investigated hook-up culture, the two are almost one in the same, with defining parallels. The fairy lifestyle almost was immersed in the hookup culture of its time, though it was not defined as such it would have been defined that way today. As the fairies were seen as a third sex, men who did the penetration had no problem having sex with fairies and were still deemed as masculine being that penetration was perceived as dominant, this aspect of fairy life in early 20th century New York can be categorized the same as today’s hook up culture as outlined by Rosin.
Most people cannot completely agree or disagree on everything, there is usually common ground that one can find with someone or something, it is much of a push and pull type of relationship, this much goes with how people advocate against fast fashion but still buy it; the same goes for how Chauncey would look at hook up culture. As depicted in the reading it was stated how “some men would beat or robbed their effeminate male sexual partners after sex as if to emphasize that they felt no connection to them and had simply ‘used’ them for sexual release” (Chauncey 60). What is detrimental here is that the sex while benefitting both to a certain level does not benefit both in the same way. There is a power dynamic between the man perceived as straight and the fairy who is perceived as socially deviant, where the straight man is doing the dominating. The aspect of being ‘used’ for sexual release is much of what is outlined in Rosin’s article about hook-up culture. Though it is not for the same reasons they draw parallels. Chauncey would recognize that this culture cannot be implemented everywhere in a beneficial and safe way, but would recognize that there is a choice that is made. Chauncey goes on to state how “...both fairies and prostitutes congregated in many of the same locales and used some of the same techniques to attract attention” (Chauncey 61), as give and take suggests there is an avid consent presented which acknowledges risk factors. Chauncey states “... both highlights and can be understood in the context of the plasticity of gender assignment in the rough working-class culture in which the fairies operated” (Chauncey 62). This speaking to the fact that Chauncey acknowledges that there is consent to this lifestyle, thus being a similar lifestyle to female prostitution which is highly mired in one-night stands and numerous hookups as outlined through Rosin’s piece on hook up culture. As it related to Rosin’s piece, the hook-up culture outline in Chauncey’s piece is different in that there is an existing risk factor involved for the fairies, thus being the threat to their physical well-being. Rosin’s piece defines no such risk factor of present-day that might occur, leaving any hesitation to support hook-up culture for Chancey duplicite.
Within Somerville’s first few pages she critiqued Chauncey for not taking an intersectional approach to his work and not talking about how fairy culture affected the black community of its time. With Rosin seeming to only focus on the heterosexual community and not bringing race or sexuality in terms of the LGBTQ+ community, into her argument this would be for sure something that Somerville would criticize. As far as the fluid concept of hook-up culture goes, Somerville’s main concerns seem to lie within how would hook-up culture perpetuate inequalities. As stated in Rosin’s piece, hook-up culture seems to be mainly perpetrated by women so they get the physical benefits of a relationship but are able to focus on their career and school instead of becoming a wife. Additionally, the statistics provided within Rosin’s piece highlight “is the dramatic decline of rape and sexual assault. Between 1993 and 2008, the rate of those crimes against females dropped by 70 percent nationally. When women were financially dependent on men, leaving an abusive situation was much harder for them. But now women who in earlier eras might have stayed in such relationships can leave or, more often, kick men out of the house. Women argues Mike Males, a criminologist at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, ‘have achieved a great deal more power. And that makes them a lot harder to victimize.’” thus showing how hook-up culture is the result of women breaking the existing power dynamic perpetrated by many men in society.
As stated both Chauncey and Somerville would find something they did not agree with in regards to how Rosin has outlined hookup culture but both are able to find ways to support it for various reasons.