I can’t be the only one who chuckled upon reading this New York Times article this morning, reporting on a recent study that found women without a college degree were more likely to engage in homosexual activity than their more educated peers:
“It’s definitely a ‘huh’ situation, because it goes counter to popular perceptions,” said Kaaren Williamsen, director of Carleton College’s gender and sexuality center.
For years, sex researchers, campus women’s centers and the media have viewed college as a place where young women explore their sexuality, test boundaries, and, often, have their first — in some cases, only — lesbian relationship.
Huh, indeed. There seem to be at least two attitudes worth examining here. The first is the perpetual belief among the elites that their lives are just so much more interesting and, of course, their sex lives must be too. But the second seems to be almost a sense of disappointment that for all the ranting about how college is a time to experiment and gender is a social construct and we need to fight back against the patriarchy, that our non-college educated peers are actually more adventurous. Dan Savage, the prominent sex columnist interviewed for the piece had an interesting theory on why the “Lesbian Until Graduation” or “LUG” phenomenon had received so much attention:
“A lot of them are out to prove something and want their effort to smash the patriarchy to be very visible,” he said.
Yes. The college kids and their professors are not content just to have the sex. They want to use it as a political statement.
But those less educated types apparently didn’t even need all the memos that peer counseling groups like to wallpaper college campuses with. Who knew sex could be so apolitical?
In some sense, this study’s finding squares with the notion that traditional marriage is now for the educated classes. It turns out that for the middle and upper-middle class strivers on our college campuses, planning for the future, getting good grades, and finding a good job all seem to be put ahead of hooking up or sexual experimentation.
