Rachel Resnick on Sex in College | Big Think

Rachel Resnick on Sex in College

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According to Rachel Resnick, college is a period of sexual liberation, but it can also lead to sexual relationships that lack intimacy.

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Rachel Resnick:

Rachel Resnick is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller Go West Young F*cked-Up Chick and Love Junkie. She has published articles, essays, and celebrity-profile cover stories in the Los Angeles Times, Women's Health, and BlackBook, The Time of My Life, Damage Control, The Dictionary of Failed Relationships, The Best American Erotica 2004, Women on the Edge, L.A. Shorts, and Absolute Disaster. She is also a contributing editor at Tin House magazine. Resnick is the founder and CEO of Writers on Fire, provider of luxury writing retreats both in the United States and abroad.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: How have attitudes about sex in college changed?

Rachel Resnick: When I was at Yale, I was there from ‘81 to ‘85. Naomi Wolf was a couple of years ahead. But there were all kinds of things going on specifically about homosexual rights. And I remember my freshmen year, there were gay men who are getting beaten that year. I mean, it was a very, it was a really turning point and a galvanizing moment for a lot of us to join forces, we’d act up and all kinds of things and advocate, and it also seem to kind of open up an experimentation, which I’m sure is typical for most colleges, but it was, there was an incredible freedom with being able to experiment with men and women and of certain fluidity and even theatricality with sexuality there that was really liberating I found.

Question: Are college students today experiencing complete sexual liberation?

Rachel Resnick: From what I know, there’s a lot of sexual activity and a certain kind of openness, but it’s not intimate, and to me, one reason that I’m so interested in cracking my own love addiction is because I’m really seeking the next level is how can I really interact with people and engage in an intimate way which our culture and certainly me as a member of it just seems to be all about running away from any kind of true engagements. What I understand in this whole idea of hooking up is absolutely fascinates me, because, once again, I’m going to hook in myself more as a woman seeing how girls are coming into their own and it’s all about blowjobs, it’s all about servicing the men, and the question is are you… are the men going down on you? I mean, are you getting any satisfaction out of this? What’s going on here? I really don’t understand that and it’s a huge concern I’d love to learn more about it and talk to those people, but it feels very much like a misogynistic absorption by these girls and the guys were just like going along.