What's Wrong with Hooking Up in College?

Abstract

College students are sometimes regarded as sexually promiscuous, and therefore egotistical and unethical, because they “hook up.” But the objectionable aspects of hooking up are unrelated to sexual promiscuity. Ethical practices of promiscuity can be defended within Millian consequentialism, Kantian deontology, and Aristotelian virtue ethics. Nonetheless, ethical analysis using these frameworks reveals that existing campus hookup practices are poorly configured to promote good outcomes, respect for persons, or human flourishing. The problem is not sexual promiscuity, but rather that campus social power is unjustifiably hierarchical and a sexual double standard prevails.

Keywords: Introductory Ethics, Introductory Moral Theory, Applied Ethics, College Ethics, Hooking Up, Sexual Ethics, Sexual Morality