So, college relationships and sex is the same as it ever was, but the old guard still wants to choose blame over education.
A new study points out:
Despite racy headlines suggesting that college kids are increasingly choosing casual liaisons over serious relationships, a new study presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association finds that just under one-third of college students have had more than one partner in the past year.
And that’s exactly the same proportion of students who were surveyed between 1988 and ’96, and between 2002 and ’10; both groups also had the same number of partners. So kids aren’t hooking up more than they ever were, or even more than their parents did, which is what recent media coverage has implied.
Of course, you wouldn't know that if you're reading
Bloomberg news' hard-hitting piece on how college boys are confused by girls:
While about 99 percent of rapes are committed by men, according to U.S. government figures, few men are rapists. Data from David Lisak, a sociologist who consults to the military and universities on the issue, suggest that the vast majority of campus sexual assaults are the work of a small group -- less than 5 percent -- of college men. No one wants to be mistaken for one of these serial offenders.
“I don’t think it’s about me,” said Gill, the Harvard student. “I feel like I’m pretty good guy. But if I’m talking to a girl and want to gauge her interest, I’m more cautious than I used to be. I don’t want to cross the line.”
It's not really clear what the point of the article is. Something about how college kids are potentially having less sex because young men are afraid of being called a rapist. So … be afraid, guys—girls who get raped might say they were raped. Of course, every quote in the article, if taken out of the frame of paranoia that Bloomberg writes it with, is sort of
exactly what you should be thinking when you are wondering whether or not you may or may not have sex with someone.
Crazy thoughts like:
Do they like me?
Do they actually want to hook up with me?
I don't want to seem like a sleazeball.
How do I not seem like a predator?
Maybe being trashed isn't the best state of mind to hook up with someone?
Alarms about kids having less sex are silly. Alarms about kids having more sex are stupid. However, just like when we were their age, it would be nice if there was more communication between people hooking up, and more education on what is consent and what is not. Sadly, there still seems to be a fear by newsmen, amongst others, that there is only something to be lost and nothing to be gained by addressing rape and sexual assault seriously.