Huffpost College The Blog   Patricia Vanderbilt Headshot  The
Hook-up Generation  Posted: Updated:  I'm apparently part of the
"hook-up generation." In pop culture, the media and even
sociology studies, there's an ongoing discussion about college
students' preference for casual sex and the effect of hooking up
on our ability to form personal relationships.  At Whitman, the
so-called hook-up culture is an established norm -- to shorten
an already short story, romantic entanglements at this school
tend to start with alcohol and grinding in a dimly lit
basement... and end with some juicy new gossip to share at
brunch the next morning. One-night stands. Nothing particularly
creative or unusual about the way they happen at Whitman.  The
flip side of the hook-up culture is rarely discussed. When
short-term flings are the expected mode of sexual interaction,
we tend to regard other, more slow-paced forms of romance as
abnormal. A girl asking a guy out? Weird -- not because of
gendered social norms, but because going