Disclaimer: The following article may contain sensitive material not appropriate for children or those who are easily offended.
“Anyone hook-up last night?”
Cue the traumatizing flashbacks of elementary school auditoriums where for many, the ‘family life’ discussion commenced. Now, replace the no-nonsense gym teacher with a Ph.D. toting professor, the squirming preteens with university faculty, and the muffled gigglers with college students.
College students, mind you, who took themselves seriously enough to voluntarily get out of bed on a Friday morning to attend a panel at McKeldin Library.
Statistically, it’s likely that many of these students woke up alone. The muffled “no’s” that filled the room were also a strong indicator.
Terps who struck out at Bentley’s for the third consecutive night in a row are in good company. In 2014, 40 percent of UMD students reported having zero sexual partners in the past 12 months.
Jenna Beckwith Messman, Sexual Health Program Coordinator for the University of Maryland Health Center, delivered this bleak fact at “Sex on Campus.” This discussion comes second in a series of forums about current hot-topics, sponsored by UMD Libraries.
The embarrassment triggered by the hook-up question, which Dr. Robin Sawyer from the School of Public Health posed, is an apparent theme among the student body.
“Back in the day, you had to talk. Now, you just text someone and if that doesn’t work, you try someone else,” Sawyer said. “Has it improved communication? Not really.”
Sawyer, along with ‘sexperts’ Dr. Dylan Selterman from the psychology department and graduate student Nicole Bedera, agree that conversations about sex provoke the inner clamped-up fourth-grader among college students.
However, the stakes for sexually-active young adults who fail to communicate effectively about sex are much higher. The sentiment in the room turned somber when the discussion turned to sexual assault on campuses.
New data reveals approximately 11 percent of men commit at least one rape. This alarmingly high percentage may be because of miscommunications in terms of consent, according to Bedera.
About 36 percent of respondents in Bedera’s study stated they always obtain verbal consent from sexual partners. Approximately 39 percent interpret physical, non-sexual cues as the green light to proceed sexually. Examples of these physical, non-sexual cues are back scratching, brow furrowing and moaning, all of which could mean exactly the opposite of consent.
“The important takeaway is that these signals are not necessarily indicators of consent, especially on their own,” Bedera stated in an email.
For many freshmen, college is the first time they’ve had opportunities to have honest conversations about sex. The vast majority of sex education in American grade school focuses on the family as a unit, Messman said.
“You have to unpack a lot,” she said. “It really challenges years of socialization.”
Kids are taught at a very young age about what they shouldn’t do sexually, with little attention dedicated to what they should do if they choose to have sex, according to Bedera.
“When my mother brought up sex it was always awkward and uncomfortable, just a long list of things I shouldn’t do,” said Colleen Miller, a senior in Sawyer’s popular human sexuality class.
“Everything I learned about sex was from eavesdropping on my older siblings or watching movies,” she said.
This lack of conversation may help explain the prevalence of sexual assault on campuses, according to Title IX Officer Catherine Carroll.
Students have a hard time even defining what hooking up is, Sawyer said.
“What is considered sex?” he asked. “What is hooking up?”
Not a single student raised a hand to answer those questions.