Between Lions
By Blanca Torii
ARTS&CULTURE EDITOR
Attraction tends to happen without willpower or prior planning. The theory of attraction is associated with subtheories: opposites attract, we’re going to marry a version of our fathers or mothers and we want what we can’t have.
Despite the factors of abandon and inevitability, of not “being able to help it,” a comparison can be made.
Say you read for fun. There’s a reason why you bought the book you did. Maybe you’ll read anything by the author. Maybe you think the cover is aesthetically pleasing, that the book itself is pretty. Maybe the jacket inside convinced you that you’ll be interested. Maybe it was a recommendation. Maybe you bought it on a whim, saying sure, why not. The list goes on.
Picking up a book to read is equal to testing the waters of a person.
Ever had a five minute conversation with someone and just known that this person wasn’t right for you? The lackluster conversation is the jacket cover to a book. Perhaps the jacket didn’t cut out a story that captured your attention.
I would argue that the laws of attraction are as decipherable as the choice to buy a book.
Have you read USD Confessions? Listened to a song on the radio? A sizable amount of “secrets” or songs” revolves around love or lust interests or the lack or categorization of possible significant others?
It seems that college culture is centered on hookups and not so much relationships. And if it doesn’t happen outright then it does ‘behind the scenes.’ Everyone wants something different; some people are content with this, others want something more. Start to type in “hookup culture,” in the Google search engine, and “on college campuses,” is the second option to complete the phrase.
Back in September, Atlantic Monthly magazine released a story, “Boys on the side,” detailing a new generation of females who drive the hookup culture themselves. The author Hanna Rosin details the studies of a sociologist who researches over the course of four years the love lives of freshmen women.
“Zoom out, and you see that for most women, the hookup culture is like an island they visit, mostly during their college years and even then only when they are bored or experimenting or don’t know any better,” Rosin said.
She continues: “But it is not a place where they drown. The sexual culture may be more coarse these days, but young women are more than adequately equipped to handle it, because unlike the women in earlier ages, they have more important things on their minds, such as good grades and internships and job interviews and a financial future of their own.”
Yet I don’t see movies like “American Pie” or “EuroTrip” being made anymore, where sexual escapades are romanticized. But, realistically, has a hookup relationship led to an ‘actual’ relationship? Sure.
Likewise, the USD Confessions Facebook page shows mixed sentiments. This page posts anonymous submissions as public statuses. A lot of the appeal, as in online public forums, lies in perusing the comments and calculating its popularity through its amount of “likes.” Many other schools have similar sites. Confessions range from, “My first thoughts when I get into a new class is which of my hot classmates can I bang,” to “My friends all love going out on weekends and trying to hook up, and obviously I go too, but I just want to meet a nice girl and have a cute relationship. It’s just hard to meet girls who are girlfriend-material at parties.”
Whatever direction relationships are headed, whatever appeal holds strongest, relationships are here to stay. The term brings up ideas of romantic relationships, but relationships are as simple as the person sitting next to you in class. Talking, or the lack of, indicates the nature of the relationship.
When you pay a visit to Copley, what (or who) are you checking out?