Sex.
For a fairly sensitive topic, people can gossip about it for hours.
Phi Gamma Delta member and political theory senior Louis Michael said every college guy wants to “get laid.”
“You’re full of shit if you’re saying no guy wants to go out and get some,” Michael said.
Whether it’s a one night stand or sex with a long-term partner, everybody seems to be doing it.
Right? Think again.
The National College Health Assessment reported earlier this year that the average MSU student has one to two sexual partners a year , which is a far cry from students out at the bar every night looking for someone to take home.
College students are bound to hook up with each other, but is finding someone to hook up with a top priority for students?
The hook-up scene
Getting laid at MSU is easy, at least that’s what social media leads the general public to believe.
A recent post made by a website dedicated to college life named MSU as No. 1 in a list titled “Top 10 Easiest Schools to Get Laid at in 2015.”
This means even people outside of the campus bubble think a lot of Spartans are just out for a pump-and-dump.
A rise in perceived sexuality might have something to do with apps like Tinder and Yik Yak offering a low-commitment and easy source to contact people in the area, in contrast to meeting at bars or parties.
“In my opinion, people on Tinder are not looking for a dedicated relationship,” said computer engineering sophomore Robert Bannister . “People are after casual, low commitment sexual encounters.”
Before finding her boyfriend on the app, elementary education sophomore Shannon Williams said guys would lead conversations with comments like “BJ behind the Union?”
“A lot of people would message me and say ‘What are you doing right now, do you wanna meet up and have sex?’” Williams said.
As an experiment, undeclared sophomore Alex, who chose not to share his name, said he uses Tinder to “figure girls out” and flirt with them when he’s bored.
He also said he has used it to meet up with girls for casual sex.
For his current opening line to the women he matches with, Alex said he has been saying “Kill, bang, marry. Me, Hitler, me again.”
Twitter pages like MSU Crushes and MSU Confessions also allow an avenue for students to express their feelings of attraction and desire for other students through a third-party source.
MSU Crushes has more than 14,000 followers and MSU Confessions has more than 18,000. Both pages are updated daily.
Special education junior Collin Potter said he sees more people looking for something with no strings attached as opposed to something more long-term.
“I see a lot more hooking up than what I consider to be real dating and the Tinder scene more than anything else,” Potter said.
Breaking the stigma
Prenursing sophomore Stirling Witthoeft met her boyfriend when she was in middle school and has been in a relationship with him for six years.
Now as MSU students, Witthoeft and her boyfriend are exposed to the dating scene and are surrounded by sex-crazed peers on campus.
Though Witthoeft has not been involved in the college dating scene, she said she doesn’t think many students are looking for a long-term relationship like hers.
“There’s obviously a good percentage of people looking for relationships, but I think most students are interested in hookups rather than relationships,” Witthoeft said.
Witthoeft said especially at the beginning of a student’s college career when they are exposed to new people and trying new things, a long-term relationship does not seem like the popular choice.
“I think for the most part, people aren’t trying to get into anything too serious at this point in their lives,” Witthoeft said.
Despite results from the MSU National College Health Assessment indicating that about 75 percent of MSU students either have one sexual partner or none during a year’s span, most students still believe that their peers are just on the hunt for casual hookups.
Physics sophomore Alex Croff is in the same situation as Witthoeft, dating a fellow MSU student she met in her hometown, but said she has seen friends currently in the dating scene who struggle with finding a match because the hook-up culture gains more exposure.
“People aren’t looking for a relationship because we’re told now we need to focus on school and getting a job and not worry about relationships until later,” Croff said.
Potter said one of the reasons many people are looking for hookups rather than relationships is because of today’s “throw-away culture.”
“It’s easy to find someone and have a night of passion, or whatever you want to call it, and then move on,” Potter said.
He said most of his friends are single and more interested in having fun and enjoying the single life as opposed to being tied down, but he doesn’t want that lifestyle.
“People will always find their ways to have fun and while I don’t agree with hooking up with random girls, that doesn’t mean I’m always right,” Potter said. “Maybe society has it right and I’m just too old-fashioned.”
Virginity
Finding a virgin in college is supposedly like finding a needle in a haystack – impossible.
And sex is a topic that has been on every college student’s mind, but does that mean all college students are having sex? The results of the assessment survey prove otherwise.
Out of more than 1,200 responding MSU students, 29 percent reported having no sexual partners in the past year. Students claimed they were waiting for the right person and the right time to become sexually active.
Music performance senior Jasmine Stecker said she’s previously downloaded dating apps, but doesn’t use them and isn’t into the hook-up scene.
“I feel as though I am here to focus on my studies and I don’t feel comfortable meeting strangers from an online app,” Stecker said.
Several religious-oriented groups also exist to help students who are making important decisions about their own sexuality.
One such group is a part of Pinky Promise Movement, which encourages members to honor God with their bodies, which includes remaining abstinent.
Pinky Promise MSU president and advertising senior Amber Lewis said she wants all female students to feel that they are welcome in the group, even if they do not remain abstinent.
“All of the young ladies in the ministry may not be abstinent because everyone has different struggles and are at different stages of their walks with Christ, but that’s OK,” Lewis said. “We don’t force ladies to be a certain way or do a certain thing or make them feel bad about who they are.”
Stereotypes
“Sorostitute.”
It’s a term sales communication junior and Gamma Phi Beta sorority member Paige Laboe said she and other sorority women have been called for reasons unrelated to their sexual agendas.
And Laboe said she is sick of the name calling.
With movies like “American Pie” and the television shows like “Greek,” members of greek life are pictured as sex- and party-crazed people, however, Laboe said many of her friends and other members of her chapter do not hook up with countless partners.
“It’s frustrating because (judgmental people) don’t even know who I am,” Laboe said. “I’m not like that and none of my friends are like that.”
Sorority women are labeled as “easy” and fraternity men are thought to be impossible to tie down in a solid relationship.
For Gamma Phi Beta, Laboe said members who do not represent the sorority in a positive way can be sentenced to a hearing with the executive board of the chapter and then put on probation or given another punishment.
“We definitely don’t condone that behavior and if you act that way, you can get in trouble,” Laboe said.
Aside from the calling members of the greek community crude and stereotypical names, many people are lead to assume the men and women in greek life are all sleeping with each other.
While it’s undeniable that members of the greek community hook up with each other, Michael said statements claiming all fraternity men want a casual hook-up are wrong.
“I think (hook-ups are) glorified by people that aren’t a part of (greek life),” Michael said. “People think it’s that easy the minute you’re in a sorority or fraternity. It’s another avenue to go about having a hook up.”
Michael said he believes the people who go out to bars to find a quickie are just doing the activities others do and there isn’t a difference in terms of finding someone to hook up with.
