Hooking Up...

The NY Times discusses Laura Sessions and her book about "the damaging effects of 'hooking up.'" Thankfully, it also discusses how ridiculous she is, too.

To critics, the book, which was published on Feb. 15, is an odd throwback -- not only retro in its point of view, but also out of sync with the current climate of high-achieving girls who are usually applauded for focusing on their careers and their female friends, rather than on finding Mr. Right.
Salon.com likened ''Unhooked'' to a ''50s-style handbook on appropriate femininity.'' Slate magazine said it is alarmist and ''makes sex into a bigger, scarier and more dangerous thing than it already is.'' A review in The Washington Post by Kathy Dobie, the author of ''The Only Girl in the Car,'' said that Ms. Sessions Stepp ''resurrects the ugly, old notion of sex as something a female gives in return for a male's good behavior.''
Many of the critics do not question that hooking up is common in the age group that Ms. Sessions Stepp singles out. In fact, while studies show that fewer teenagers are having sex, other studies of students at individual universities show that the hookup is the predominant way that students sexually interact.
But no studies draw a line between the hookup culture and either clinical depression or a lifetime of remaining single, the critics point out.

Read the whole article here.