What can hook up culture tell us about contemporary intimacies? PDF

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this essay will explore the realms of online dating, youth and hook up culture, and how this has mediated and commodified our contemporary intimacies....

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What can hook up culture tell us about contemporary intimacies? Hook-up culture, described as “the apocalypse of dating” [ CITATION Nan15 \l 2057 ] can be defined as instances of no strings attached intimacies [ CITATION Jan17 \l 2057 ], anything from kissing to intercourse is included in a ‘hook-up’ and the study of it Is heavily focused on young people, particularly college and university students [ CITATION Wad17 \l 2057 ] and a large majority of hooking up occurs at parties, in a private location once a mutual attraction has been established through communication (Bogle, 2007; Wade 2017). Hooking up is no new phenomena; the creation of the birth control pill, as well as women’s liberation movements in the 60s all meant that sexual culture became much more fluid and casual decades ago [ CITATION Eng10 \l 2057 ] Moreover, the tools that are now used to navigate, create and define hooking up are relatively new and have certainly changed the way casual intimacies are viewed and conducted; and sometimes this is not positive, but instead rather destructive. Tinder was created in 2012 by HatchLabs and is referred to as a geosocial networking application, whereby users ‘match’ with people from liking (swiping) their profile. In 2014, tinder was registering up to 1 billion swipes per day. Tinder, along with Grindr (2009) and Bumble (2014) have transcended and commercialised hook-up culture into new realms; therefore, it can be argued hook-up culture is somewhat progressive. Dating apps have meant that hook ups are mediated [ CITATION Bar18 \l 2057 ] And are in abundance because so many people use the app. Illouz (2012) describes this as ‘Technologies of Choice’ where because there is such abundance, higher standards and reluctance to settle down is a part of hooking up. This is both positive and negative depending on the individual, as with any form of intimacy there is emotion, albeit repressed or explored. The emotional outcomes of hooking up are largely varied depending on the demographics of those hooking up, including age, gender, social status, appearance, mental health, etc, [ CITATION Hel10 \l 2057 ]. Whilst there is an enjoyable and exciting element of hooking up experienced by most, there is usually an unwritten but agreed premise that hook-ups are unemotional, without a romantic or feeling connection; however, this mentality can leave students feeling isolated, lonely and confused. (Paul, 2006; Heldman & Wade, 2010) After sex, follows emotion, almost always; however, within hook-up culture, the emotional tap is switched off when it comes to interacting with one another; but for some, usually women, a whole influx of emotions experienced afterward. Ironically, hook-up culture tends to expose our most, literally, naked selves with an almost stranger, yet with them the hardest thing to do is be emotional or vulnerable. It can also lead to troubles establishing meaningful and serious relationships in the future; where trust and intentions are presumably doubted and questioned. This has always been the way with hooking up, which shows maybe hook-up culture has its progressive characteristics with technology which does contribute to the idea that contemporary

intimacies are socially constructed and mediated, however those who hook-up have no progressive action on emotional responses. Hook-up culture and contemporary intimacies can also be harmful towards women. Almost indefinitely; hook-up culture is sexist and gender politics plays a role in emotional outcomes and will often work in the favour of men, hook-ups have been described as a new way for men to get what they want out of women [ CITATION Wad17 \l 2057 ]. However, Hanna Rosin describes a feminist idea whereby women can put their education and careers before men by taking part in hook-up culture where “serious relationships can be avoided at all costs” [ CITATION Han12 \l 2057 ] Which is quite progressive and in theory, true. Moreover, sociologists [ CITATION Kal11 \l 2057 ] State that hooking up is “guys sex” and that males run the hook-up culture scene, which as a consequence puts women in the back seat and creates a double standard within sex, that allows for male partners to be disrespectful towards females. In her book ‘Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love, and Lose at Both’ (2007) Laura Sessions Stepp describes that in her view, hooking up can cause women to have low self-esteem, depression, alcoholism and even eating disorders. Yet pop culture feminist Jessica Valenti believes that the issue doesn’t lie with causal sex, but a moral panic, created around casual sex, which perpetuates the issues described by Stepp. Modern Hook-up culture is arguably a part of the umbrella term ‘Cold Intimacies’ coined by Illouz in 2012, or ‘Emotional Cooling’ (Bauman, 2003). The theory describes the shift that has been made from genuine relationships and connections, to economic, commercialised and counterfeit romance as a result of self-fulfilment, similar to consumer and capitalist culture [ CITATION Van20 \l 2057 ]. Within capitalist society there are commodities of this idea available to the individual, they include: Tinder subscriptions, female self-help books, and perhaps the biggest commodity that stimulates hook up culture and cold intimacies –television series Love Island. Ever since Love Island’s second reboot onto the reality TV scene in 2015, it has epitomised everything that hook-up culture is, including incidences of veiled abuse or manipulation which is rarely ever showcased to such an extent as it is on Love Island; however all comes under the bracket of emotional cooling. [ CITATION Por20 \l 2057 ] Research also showed that when viewers consume reality TV, they start to absorb ideas, morals and values (Bilzandic, 2006); and with the show attracting 52.3% of people aged 16-24 (Jones, 2017), it is clear to see the connection and influence between the show and ideas of hook-up culture, emotional cooling, cold intimacies, and the affect this has on young people. Not only this, but there is a wealth of sponsorships, an app and merchandise thrown in for good consumerist measure, turning love into a commodity, which feels overly familiar.

Within modern intimacies, individual choice is something that now prevails anything else and enable us to measure our hook-ups in a way where we can monitor the seriousness (or lack of) of encounters. Choice is a tool that can end or begin hook-ups and relationships, therefore is hugely important to understand how choice cannot always be mutually agreed, and even ignored and manipulated, usually to the disadvantage of women. Technologies of Choice (Illouz, 2012), adopts the idea that increased rationalisation and individualisation in modern society leads to greater choices for women; and now there is so much choice available to the individual, standards have sharply risen and there is a general deterrence towards loving and healthy relationships – this is another contribution to the perpetuation of hook-up culture and contemporary intimacies. There are many positives of hook-up culture that reflect the modern-day individualistic society that we operate in. People who engage in hook-ups often find that it is freeing and less stressful than a monogamous relationship [ CITATION Wad17 \l 2057 ]. This culture is quickly becoming or has already become extremely normative across university campuses and areas of student residency; however, the myth that students have a lot of sex is anything but true. The myth can be debunked by looking at research done by Oxygen.ie in 2015, where they found that out of 12,000 students, over half reported that their ‘magic number’ or how many sexual partners they have ever had was between just one and two people. Not only this, students also reported on one-night stands, and the most common answer for both males and females was less than 5 one-night stands. These claims can also be backed by Monto (2013) Who conducted research with over 1,800 students, comparing their sexual activity to their counterparts in the 80s, Monto found no increase in sexual practices, which is surprising as it certainly feels like hook-up culture has sky rocketed, however ultimately, this tells us that contemporary intimacies aren’t as progressive as we are lead to believe. To conclude, it is wise to contest the idea that hook up culture is socially constructing our society into normalised polygamy, where traditional relationships are out and plastic sexuality (Giddens, 1992) is in, whilst to some extent there is a definite shift of morality surrounding relationships and sex, it is not to completely dispel the power traditional relationships (like the nuclear family) hold. Most people still see a hegemonic future for themselves. Not only this, but practices involved in contemporary intimacies, like friends with benefits, hooking up, one night stands haven’t changed, however technology has started to facilitate and mediate relationships, as well as capitalist strain turning love into a commodity through social media or reality TV; removing the need to go out partying and consume large amounts of intoxicants to hook up, now it all can be done at the touch of a button.

References Barker, M.-J., Gill, R. & Harvey, L., 2018. Mediated intimacy: Sex advice in media culture. Sexualities , 21(8). England, P., Armstrong, E. & Hamilton, L., 2010. Is hooking up bad for young women?. Contexts, 9(3), pp. 22-27. Fardouly , J. & Vartanian , L., 2016. Social Media and Body Image Concerns: Current Research and Future Directions.. Current Opinion in Psychology, Volume 9, pp. 1-5. Heldman, C. & Wade, L., 2010. Hookup Culture: setting a new research agenda. Sexuality research and social policy, Volume 7, pp. 323-333. Illouz E (2012) Why Love Hurts: A Sociological Explanation. Cambridge; Malden, MA: Polity Press. Kalish, R. & Kimmel, M., 2011. HOOKING UP. Australian Feminist Studies , 26(67), pp. 137-151. Pham, J. M., 2017. Beyond hookup culture: Current trends in the study of college student sex and where to next. Sociology Compass, 11(8), pp. 1-11. Porter, J. & Standing, K., 2020. Love Island and Relationship Education. Frontiers in Sociology, 4(79), pp. 1-2. Rosin, H., 2012. The Atlantic. [Online] Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/09/boys-on-the-side/309062/ [Accessed 14 12 2020]. Sales, N. J., 2015. Vanity Fair. [Online] Available at: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/08/tinder-hook-up-culture-end-of-dating [Accessed 12 12 2020]. Samaha, M. & Hawi , S., 2016. The Relations Among Social Media Addiction, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction in University Students. Computer Science Review , 35(5), pp. 576-586. Stepp, S., L., 2007: Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both. 1 st. New York. Riverhead Van Hoof, J., 2020. Swipe Right? Tinder, Commitment and Commercialisation of intimate life. Intimate Relationships and Choice in a Time of ‘Cold Intimacies’: Examining Illouz, 1(1), pp. 109-129. Wade, L., 2017. American Hookup: the new culture of sex on campus. 1st ed. s.l.:W.W. Norton & Company. Wolf, N., 1990 . The Beauty Myth. 1 ed. UK: Chatto & Windus .

The Civil Rights (USA) And Rock Against Racism (UK) Movements used music to highlight racial and ethnic inequalities. How effective are today’s musicians in challenging racist discourses? Apart from the act itself, music is one of the biggest ways to protest and communicate, with many musicians using music as a platform to discuss the inequalities caused by racism throughout society; novelist James Baldwin describes music as “our witness and our ally ” whereby music has been a focal point for so many social movements, notably The Civil Rights Movement, known as ‘the singing movement’ a decades long fight between the 50s and 60s; with the key voices of Odetta, Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin and songs of resistance were born, this era can be defined within Dick Hebdige’s idea of sub and counter-culturalism (1979) as the movement itself was very separate and at the time, controversial to the hegemonic norm of white society. This is not dissimilar to the Rock Against Racism (RAR) movement that occurred in Britain between 1976 and 1982, founded by artist and photographer Red Saunders; the aim was to unite white and black youth through pop music, something that was never done before. Specifically blending Jamaican Ska and British Punk music, bands like The Specials were born and anti-racism became ‘hip’ and ‘cool’ in the UK. Nowadays, it is hard to believe that music still makes such an impact to social movements, arguably this is down to the realms of technology and media, and how these elements are over saturated with artists and music that have a story of struggle. This essay will analyse the effectiveness of musicians today in comparison of their past counterparts, based on how successfully they challenge racist discourses within social movements. Within protest and social movement, collective identity (Taylor and Whittier, 1992; Durkheim, 1981; Becker, 1974) is a key part of making change happen and is incredibly central to the study of protest. Social movements thrive when a collective consciousness surfaces amongst participants. The sharing of cultural opinions and goals drives movements. Durkheim was the first to coin the theory of ‘collective identity’ calling it a group characteristic that is shared, however Taylor and Whittier later expanded on this with more depth and contemporary examples, looking at subcultures such as the hippy movement; exploring the rituals, beliefs, morals and values they share and how they are performed. Music can be viewed as a tool to create a collective identity, a very effective one at that, as in the past it has been referred to as a ‘universal language’ famously quoted by many, including Wadsworth. On December 1st, 1955, A woman of colour, Rosa Parks was asked to give up her seat for a white male whist riding the bus, when she refused, she was lawfully arrested, what followed was mass

protest and uprising across the USA, whereby the entire black community was to be united against lack of human rights; this was to be remembered

as

The

Civil

Rights

Movement. The Civil Rights Movement aimed for black Americans to gain equal rights to their white counterparts under USA legislation and law; and became a youth led movement in 1960. Countless acts of violence against black Americans followed, however through persistence and music, the black community achieved The Civil Rights Act (1964) Which outlawed segregation in schools and places of work, The Voting Rights Act (1965) and The Fair Housing Act (1968) which outlawed discrimination in housing. The identity of the movement was collective, and deep routed in music and singing, with ‘We shall overcome’ a song first sung by tobacco workers, particularly Lucille Simmons during a cigar workers strike in 1945, Guy Carawan used this song in 1959 to promote nonviolent activism during the movement (image: Civil Rights Demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention, 1964; Yes! Magazine, 2017) from this, we can see that music can act and serve as a tool for recruitment and support [ CITATION Ron02 \l 2057 ]. Musicians during The Civil Rights Movement turned every-day concert goers, into active participants, simply by attending and supporting bands and music [ CITATION Les07 \l 2057 ]. The Freedom Singers, a student led band intrinsically tied to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) performed up to four concerts a day, where they would educate black youth about their basic level rights, such as voting, through song and music. Forwarding on to Britain a couple of decades later, the Rock Against Racism (RAR) Movement struck in 1976 at time where racial tensions were growing during the Thatcher era, not only this, but the movement was birthed following racist and fascist comments made by popular artists at the time, including Eric Clapton, who to a crowd during a performance said that “Britain has become overcrowded” (1976) and David Bowie who was quoted saying “Hitler was one of the first five rock stars” (1976). Red Saunders, co-founder of RAR, would organise tours of the UK, where carnivals and concerts uniting both black and white youth would take place in the country’s major cities. Notably, RAR toured alongside political campaigns in the run up to the 1979 general election. In Britain, this is the first example where pop music and politics came together, this was to push youth into practising equality to towards the UK’s black population. Perhaps the biggest joining of forces was the 2 tone band ‘The Specials’ created and described as “like a dream come true” by Red Saunders, the band

consisted of both white and black male musicians and became the face of the RAR movement, blending Jamaican Ska with British Punk to create their incredibly successful self-titled debut album in 1979; overall, the band helped to diffuse racial tensions that were present in Britain and leaves a legacy that denotes innovation, risk and reward. Another part of the RAR legacy came from their well-used slogan ‘Love Music Hate Racism’ this slogan was used as the name of a 2002 campaign that was set up after electoral success of the British National Party (BNP) And aimed to show diversity and multiculturalism in music and society. In todays musical and cultural landscape, there are still massive issues with racism. In May 2020, the popular #BlackLivesMatter movement was relaunched on a global scale when a black American named George Floyd was killed by the police force; caught on camera by a helpless witness. This action of institutionalised racism shook the world to its core, and sadly reminded us that black males are still a stigmatised, hyper-criminalised sub group [ CITATION TED14 \l 2057 ] To challenge this racist discourse, popular American rappers Dababy and Roddy Rich remixed their number one track ‘Rockstar’ [ CITATION Kir20 \l 2057 ] with themes from the current events of George Floyd’s killing and the Black Lives Matter movement, this was performed at the 2020 BET Music awards and tribute to Floyd and ‘all lives lost to racism and police brutality’ [ CITATION Deb20 \l 2057 ]. The frankly disrespectful hyper-criminalised and oversexualised stigma of black males is deep routed in stereotypes [ CITATION Ale12 \l 2057 ] and this is reflected unfairly institutionally throughout society, English rapper Dave speaks of the struggle black people go through in order to be successful in his track titled ‘Black’ with the line “black is evident It's workin' twice as hard as the people you know you're better than” [ CITATION Dav19 \l 2057 ] Which communicates the struggle for the black community within the workplace or education sectors and challenges other racist discourses very well. Dave performed this song at The Brits 2020, as a tribute towards the black community and the struggles they have faced, particularly in the year 2020. One of the most influential of his generation, American rapper Kendrick Lamar has consistently alluded to the struggle black Americans face throughout all of his incredibly prolific rap albums. He touches on the subject of police brutality frequently [ CITATION Lov16 \l 2057 ] which seems to be an occurring theme within political rap, indicating that this could be one of the biggest struggles; an example of this is ‘ Alright’ taken from the 2015 album To Pimp A Butterfly, the specific line “and we hate po-po, wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho” [ CITATION Duc15 \l 2057 ] translates struggle. Hailed the song of the Black Lives Matter Movement; [ CITATION Sam20 \l 2057 ] Videos of its catchy chorus “But if God got us, then we gon' be alright” began to surface online during the protests of 2020. It is clear that in both The UK and USA there are prominent struggles with racist discourses in the 21 st century, which many rappers use as a focal point for their music. Many artists use social movements as a platform and site of

protest to communicate with their audience about issues and movements like the Black Lives Matter on. Arguably, there is no bigger site of protest than social media. Events from around the world can go viral within a matter of ...