Evaluating Hookup Culture on Campus: A Lesbian Separatist Perspective

Abstract

Hookup culture on the college campus simultaneously offers young women a venue for sexual liberation, while reproducing gender inequities observed throughout much of society. Thus, women are subjected to power imbalances, sexual dissatisfaction, and restrictions in their own bodily autonomy in the pursuit of casual sex. Given this bind, I set out to evaluate hookup culture from the framework expressed through lesbian separatist practice. Specifically, I analyze The Furies Collective, a lesbian separatist group operating in Washington D.C. from the years 1970-1972. In these two years, the Furies developed a self-titled newspaper, educational networks, and a compelling set of feminist principles to guide their activism. In this project, I draw insight from both a personal interview with Furies Collective founder Charlotte Bunch, as well as primary and academic sources. This research finds that while hookup culture does reflect various societal and physical inequities for women, it also provides opportunities for homosocial bonding, as demonstrated in lesbian separatism, that work to make this culture more satisfactory for women. Therefore, in order to benefit from the liberating aspects of hookup culture, women can capitalize on the separatist spaces associated with the hookup environment, like the sorority and pre-game, to fortify connections with one another as a means of protection in hookup spaces.