Sexual
hookups have now become a major culture in the United States and many other
parts of the Western Hemisphere. While this culture is particularly prevalent
among men and women in their early twenties, it is also a form of orientation
among teenagers.
With
the gap between puberty and entry into marriage getting ever wider, these
teenagers and young adults are turning more and more to casual relationships as
a way to express and satisfy their emotional needs through sex.
In
the United States, this
issue has already reached an epidemic level. Unfortunately, it is often too
late for these young people to realize that casual sex only leads to casual stress.
The stress here is a summary of long-time physical and emotional pains. And the
worse victims of the epidemic are the female participants.
Fortunately,
this issue has attracted the interest of social scientists. For instance, a Kinsey
Institute researcher, Justin Garcia and his team from SUNY analyzed its grave physical
and psychological impacts in a 2012 comprehensive review. Hear them:
“In
addition to risks of contracting STDs, unwanted pregnancies, and being raped or
otherwise assaulted, people who engage in casual sex may suffer emotional
consequences that persist long past the details of the encounter are but a dim
memory. On college campuses, where brief
sexual liaisons are as prevalent as parties on a Friday night, the
unanticipated results of a hookup can jeopardize a student’s career. In the workplace, the results can be just as
disastrous, if not more so.”
