“It Goes Hand in Hand with the Parties”

Abstract

Hooking up, or sexual activity outside relationships, is a dominant feature of social life on many college campuses. However, research has yet to explore how social location intersects with campus-level factors to shape students’ negotiations of this script. Interview data from 87 undergraduates at an urban commuter university demonstrate the distinction between “adopting” and “enacting” sexual scripts. Although the majority of students locate hooking up as a salient cultural scenario for their lives, the adoption of hooking up does not neatly translate into its enactment for all students. Where students live emerges as a fault line systematically structuring opportunities for hooking up. There are racial and class divisions even among students with similar residential locations, reflecting the importance of socioeconomic resources and peer group homophily to sexuality. This study points to how race, class, and residence integrally shape the interpersonal sexual scripts of college students.