Rosin’s now-canonized book The End of Men directly addressed the fear of authors like Bogle and Caitlin Flanagan (whose 2012 book, Girl Land, served as the counterpart to Kimmel’s)-those worrying about the departure of hetero dating norms like male chivalry and “going steady.” Rosin went so far as to argue that feminist progress “depends on” hookup culture. In 2012, Hanna Rosin piped in and helmed the debate’s other side: the notion that hookup culture is a good thing, especially for women. This left moralism and anxiety at the center of the hookup culture “debate.” While Kimmel’s analysis of “guyland” sacrificed nuance, Bogle’s overly generalized conclusions evaporated her attempt at anthropological objectivity. Kimmel’s account simply but aptly assessed hooking up as “guys’ sex.” Kathleen Bogle’s book Hooking Up, also published in 2008, then concluded that hooking up was “the new norm” on American college campuses, arguing specifically that it was dangerous for women. Michael Kimmel’s Guyland (2008) offered an entertaining but simplistic topography of the value system of “guys” in America, sometimes insightfully and always cartoonishly portraying that critical time between adolescence and young adulthood.

Cover image source: Lisa Wade, Ph.D.īefore I discovered the work of Lisa Wade, PhD, associate professor of sociology at Occidental College and author of American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus, I preemptively dismissed all think pieces and books about “hookup culture” as inevitably reductive, likely problematic, and quite possibly puritanical.

American Hookup by Lisa Wade