Many women our age are hitting their prime and doing their best to accomplish their dreams. Now is not the time to slow down, especially for a boy/girl that was never meant to be taken seriously. Slowing down can range from accidentally getting pregnant, developing an STD, or even harassed and exploited. All these factors are common in our age but why is that? Because we are not practicing safe sex with the right people.
Hook-ups and flings always happen at parties and even amongst mutual friends, but do you genuinely know that person your sleeping with that night? It is scary that we encourage our friends to pursue something that you yourself do not know if it is safe. Our friends could get raped, hurt, pregnant, or develop an STD because we all thought it was cool to sleep around. There is no judgement in the decision process to hook-up with someone, but I encourage you and everyone to think thoroughly about a decision this serious. Women need to control their mind on their own and not give into peer pressure for hooking up with someone.
If you have are having casual sex with your partner, make sure you get tested constantly because you never know if your partner is having casual sex with someone else. My friend who would like to stay anonymous just got diagnosed with two cases of STDs. My friend thought she was the only person having sex with her partner and in the end, she found out that he had multiple partners simultaneously. My friend felt taken advantage of because her partner was not honest and caused her to go through pain all on her own. Women need to change the narrative of being taking advantaged of and be careful. You may be honest about what you are doing but you do not know if you are partner is doing the same.
Exploitation can happen at any moment with a partner but can happen much more with hook-ups. I have heard men say they have nudes of many girls they haven’t even slept with because of their friend’s hook-ups and their friend’s friend’s. Men seem to lose respect towards women they use just for sex because it is nothing serious. It is scary to think of how men degrade women this way and continue to cause exploitation with private and confidential sexual activities you thought you had with your partner. Exploitation is a dangerous line that is constantly crossed in many campuses around the country and quickly follows with harassment and sexual harassment.
People have this fantasy about hook-ups and the thrills they get with it, but before you decide to be a casual person in the hook-up world or already are one remember that there are side effects to it. Be careful with who you decide to take a chance on sexually you never know what can happen in the end.