The Love and Fidelity Network is running its campaign, #BringDatingBack, on college campuses this Valentine’s Day.
The campaign’s goal is to promote dates without sexual contact as an opposition to what could be described as the college hook-up culture.
The Love and Fidelity Network’s director, Caitlin La Ruffa, has said that young people feel obligated to “hook-up” and she wants to change that. As a proponent of abstinence before marriage, La Ruffa hopes the campaign will encourage students to engage in a chaste form of casual dating, such as asking someone out for a cup of coffee or a burger.
While La Ruffa isn’t alone in her opposition to the casual sex that is widely accepted as dating on college campuses, some see hooking up as a form of sexual freedom and a form of empowerment, especially for women who don’t want to derail their career paths with short-term relationships.
So what do you think of the college hook-up culture? Is it damaging or empowering? Should the promotion of casual, sex-free dating be more prominent on campuses?
Guests:
Caitlin La Ruffa, executive director of the Love and Fidelity Network, a pro-abstinence organization which started the #BringDatingBack campaign
Kathleen Bogle, Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice, La Salle University; and author of "Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus" (NYU Press, 2008)