Bishop Barron on The Hookup Culture

the hook-up culture refers to this mentality really that casual sexual encounters without any kind of psychological connection or relationship or personal engagement are fine prevalent among young people but especially at university so that's where Tom Wolfe really wonderful novel call I am Charlotte Simmons was said it's about a young girl who comes to a Ivy League school and finds herself completely corrupted by the the sexual culture there and in Leonard Sachs is thought-provoking and disturbing book from 2006 called why gender matters what becomes clear is that he learned about the hook-up culture through the armies of young women who were streaming into his office suffering from anxiety depression because of their immersion in this strange world now you would think it was a commonplace that the hook-up culture even as you acknowledge its existence is something which should be condemned decried rather than celebrate it well I found an alternative perspective just recently I was reading the Atlantic magazine and there's an article they're called boys on the side written by a woman named Hannah Rosen and she says no on the contrary the hookup culture especially for women is something that should be celebrated that it gives women a freedom and a confidence that makes it a great boon for women well Rosen allows that a lot of studies have shown the sort of dark side of the hookup culture but she argues that a closer look reveals that it's actually very beneficial let me just read a couple of quotes from the article she says for most women the hook-up culture is like an island they visit mostly during their college years and even then only when they are bored or experimenting or don't know any better but it's not a place where they drown she says now how come well listen she goes on the most patient and thorough research about the hook-up culture shows that over the long-run women benefit great from living in a world where they can have sexual adventure without commitment or all that much shame and where they can enter into temporary relationships that don't get in the way of future success now one might think the hook-up culture will produce all sorts of victims among women Oh contraire she says listen young women who choose a variety of sexual partners and steer clear of pesky relationships managed I'm quoting now from her manage their romantic lives like savvy headhunters then this here's her kind of grand conclusion the hook-up culture is too bound up with everything that's fabulous about being a young woman in 2012 the freedom the confidence the knowledge that you can always depend upon yourself now sort of those articles that you're tempted just to put it down say I can't quite believe what I'm reading but what I want to focus on is at last a grand conclusion notice the things she emphasizes so freedom confidence depending on yourself are all fundamentally subjective attitudes now no one in his right mind would condemn these things in themselves but here's the point freedom is valuable not so much as an end in itself freedom is valuable in the measure that it conduces us toward the good self-reliance who's going to quarrel with that but self-reliance is good confidence is good in the measure that it allows for the fully mature living of the good life in other words the subjective attitude always calls out toward the objective good and there it finds its proper point of reference what really struck me in Rosen's article was the almost complete lack of reference to the objective order so what's the moral and ethical setting for the sexual act no reference to it what's the purpose and meaning of sexuality no reference to it what dare I say is the religious context for sexuality no reference to it and apparently it's irrelevant all that matters is that women become free and confident and savvy head and may I suggest that phrase is very telling let it let it stay in your mind a little bit a headhunter this means a subjectivity that has begun to stew in its own juices a subjectivity that is is not connected to the objectively good turns in on itself the church refers this by the way as original sin left to our own devices severed from any keen sense of the objective good we tend to rest in ourselves in a self-absorbed and finally destructive way see I think that explains very well why there is indeed great sadness that comes up out of the hook-up culture you know it comes to mind here is some one of my great heroes Bob Dylan and one of his really great lines my song now it's about 20 years old but he says freedom just around the corner from you but with truth so far off what good would it do and it's exactly this point freedom great or the land of the free we love freedom who doesn't freedom just around the corner from you via via savvy headhunter but see with truth so far off what good would it do in fact it won't do any good at all it'll devolve it'll turn into itself and become something very destructive I mean what I would say in conclusion is that sexual Liberty the hook-up culture will produce indeed a lot of savvy hen owners I have no doubt about that but they will find themselves in short order in dr. Sachs's office suffering from a very deep sadness of the heart

Channel: Bishop Robert Barron

Views: 200,317

Rating: 4.9196987 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: FSrYR2XvR6A

Length: 6min 25sec (385 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 12 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/Ofwaihhbtntkctwbd]

He could have mentioned how those who have more sexual partners before marriage are more likely to divorce.

Also, hookup culture lends itself to a lot of rape, rape accusations and broken hearts. There's a reason people didn't sleep around in the past because it's well established that he-said-she-said assault cases are impossible to solve without physical evidence. The only person you should be sleeping with is your partner.

Funny how the #metoo nonsense started not long after American media and public (or the twitter mob, at least) made a meal out of hounding Mike Pence for refusing to meet women without anyone else around.

[u/stan3666]

“It’s destroying traditional marriage! Won’t someone think of the children” he says, as he starts thinking about children again