The Sexual Politics of hookup culture

A Black feminist intervention

Bibliographic Data

ID18981423
AuthorsN J Baker (0000-0001-5962-6436, The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume28
Issue5-6
Pages1728-1745
Publication date2025-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSexualities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/13634607231209716
OpenAlexW4388451750
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited47

Sexuality researchers wrestle with the question of how power both generates options for sexual behaviors while also constraining them, but the potential for creation and agency among minority groups remains underexamined. Based on in-depth interviews with 40 LGBTQ and racial minority college students, this article makes two core contributions. First, I document their experiences of fetishization; their concerns over safety and the potential for violence; and the invalidation of their identities in campus hookup culture. Second, I show how in response they create “community-based party cultures,” differentiated from hookup culture by four major features: (1) Differentiated access to resources, (2) varying emphases on casual sex, (3) varying expectations of anonymity, and (4) emphasized trust/safety in these spaces. Findings update research assumptions that racial minority and/or LGBTQ students passively avoid hookup culture by illuminating how they organize spaces for themselves

Anonymity · Casual · Human sexuality · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Psychology · Social Psychology