Netflix film Newness, directed by Drake Doremus, catalogues Martin Hoult and Gabriella Costa navigating a dating-app-dominated hookup culture. After multiple meaningless sexual encounters, Martin and Gabby meet through the app and fall into a serious relationship. At one point of their first date, Gabby explains that she often toys with different activities and life paths, only to abandon them when they grow ‘boring’ in her search for constant ‘newness’.
In our current age of sexual freedom and experimentation, casual sex has become greatly decriminalized and considered less ‘taboo’, especially in a college campus. Duke University has an arguably dominant social culture of casual hook-ups, preempted by brief conversation, extensive alcohol consumption, and typically followed by strict eye contact aversion. These experiences are certainly not shared by everyone, but they compose a definite culture on campus. On the one hand, it is natural to celebrate youth, to crave wild, blurry nights and the thrill of the chase. But at what point must we cast away this search for constant ‘newness’ and craft genuine intimate relationships? Or must we abandon it at all?
Another topic the film Newness critiques is the idea of polyamory; when relationship strife prompts both Martin and Gabby to cheat on each other, they decide to have an open relationship, one defined by transparency under the idea that adultery is only damaging because of the lie, rather than the act itself. Ultimately, Gabby and Martin begin to conceal elements of their hookups and become emotionally vulnerable with their other partners, leading to the devolution of their relationship. The film then prompts the question, is polyamory only possible if you have only one primary emotional partner? Is it possible to be in love with multiple people at once? In the 21st century as we deconstruct typical binaries such as gender or sexual orientation, is it also plausible to reconsider social norms of monogamy? Does that lead us to consider whether it is natural to have only one partner, or is it possible that multiple individuals complete different parts of ourselves?
This is a topic of scrutiny as we engage in Duke’s “hookup culture”, navigate relationships and consider our opinion of marriage and polyamory.