This NYT article provoked a good bit of discussion on FB and pushback in the blogosphere (here and here, at least). A few observations:
- Generally speaking I don't care for the borderline moral panic articles about what college kids are doing in bed, but I do admit to sadness in hearing the way the language of return on investment has entered into the article's subjects. Then again, sex and love and commitment can't really be separated from the other ways a society treats personal and interpersonal relations, and maybe what I'm wincing at is just the the way in which what Foucault calls the neoliberal production of "self-entrepreneurs" has taken us all up in its grasp.
- Where is the critique of the male behavior (this article is all about straights) in the "hook up culture" -- that is, performing cost/benefit calculations regarding time commitment for access to sex / time commitment for forming and maintaining a "relationship" / time commitment for maximizing your job market profile? Why is it a problem that women are acting like Wall Street guys and not a problem that Wall Street guys are acting the way they do?
- Why is it assumed that the women in the story are completely lacking in emotional intimacy just because they aren't getting that from their sex partners? Do these college women not have non-sex-partner friends with whom they have emotional bonds?
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