Snapchat. Parties. Alcohol. Make out sessions. Sex.
According to the National Library of Medicine, hooking up is defined as casual sexual behaviors ranging from kissing to sexual intercourse with a partner in which there is currently no commitment, and no expected future commitment.
Betty, an anonymous PHS senior girl, said that hook up culture in Piedmont is very prominent.
“[Hooking up] becomes meaningless because so many people do it. At least that’s what it feels like. It’s super normalized,” Betty said. “It becomes normalized to the point where it does not feel intimate.”
Senior Caius Holmes said Piedmont’s notorious hook up culture is incredibly toxic.
“I personally don’t support [the hook-up culture], I think that people need to take more care of who they choose as partners,” Holmes said. “I think in reality, most of these people that engage in hook ups really want something more, and they are just settling for what they can get.”
Betty said that most hook ups occur either during or after parties, late at night, or after people have become inebriated. She said she has conflicting views on hook up culture.
“I think hooking up is good. For teenagers, it’s a good way to figure out what you like, who you are, what you’re into,” Betty said. “But what it has become is problematic because it’s so meaningless, because it’s so normalized. I fear for us going into the future, like how that’s going to impact our behavior, or how we build relationships in the future.”
Derek, an anonymous senior boy, said that alcohol is a driving factor in his hook ups.
“[Often], I drink at parties just so I can have an excuse to try to [hook up] with someone, or so I have an excuse to text someone I want to hook up with,” Derek said. “It’s either so I can have the confidence to do it, or so I don’t get clowned for [hooking up with someone unattractive].
Joseph, an anonymous PHS junior boy, said that hook up partners are usually with people that don’t know each other well.
“[Hook ups] are usually at parties, or right after parties,” Joseph said. “They happen with a person they haven’t even talked to much, or they have known them a bit. It’s very random I would say, and very influenced by alcohol.”
Junior Gianluca Richmond said people hook up in places beyond parties, but not usually at a partner’s home.
“Yeah, hella people link up at parties, but usually, it happens somewhere more private, like a park or a car. That can be after a party, or just a regular weekend night,” Richmond said. “No one ever goes to [a hook up partner’s] house unless they are sneaking in. They don’t want the awkwardness of meeting the parents of someone they barely know.”
While hook ups may occur between two people who don’t know each other, in other cases, hook ups happen within friend groups.
Andrew, an anonymous senior boy, said that he has hooked up with a member of a friend group, and that this has impacted the group’s dynamic.
“It’s only weird if you make it weird. It would only be weird if we were at school and avoided each other,” Andrew said. “Obviously, it’s made our relationship a little different, in good and bad ways. It’s different because you obviously have a higher level or degree of relationship with them. It can be awkward, too.”
According to Urban Dictionary, a two-man is when two boys and two girls hang out together, with the intention of hooking up with one of the other gendered people.
Richmond said these have greatly affected hook up culture.
“Piedmont has a really limited pool of people available [for hookups], so lots of people use [Snapchat] and [Instagram] to find people from other schools to hook up with,” Richmond said. “But sometimes people from [Piedmont] run [two-mans] with other [Piedmont students]. It kinda changes what used to be a ‘double date’ to be just focused on hooking up.”
Betty said that the media plays a large role in hook up culture.
“What we see when we watch TV or when we watch shows, I’d say that influences a lot of our behavior,” Betty said.
Holmes said that different genders are held to different standards.
“Piedmont is such a close knit community, so that once someone engages in a hook up, they almost instantly receive a reputation,” Holmes said. “Girls are absolutely held to way higher standards, or at least there’s a more negative reception. There’s a connotation that girls who engage in hook up culture are less intelligent, or aren’t as smart as girls who don’t.”
This tight knit community and different gender standards have led to a widespread issue in Piedmont. Friends often hook up with the same person, and this leads to different views, particularly between boys and girls.
Holmes said hook up culture comes down to what kind of person someone is, and if they can carry the emotional load that hooking up brings.
“It feels really frustrating that boys just see you as a body and not like your heart and your mind,” senior Malia Williams said.
