Professor Donna Freitas lectures about her study on religion, sex and romance
Donna Freitas speaks about the hook-up culture and religion on college campuses. Freitas interviewed students at public, private, secular and Catholic colleges. She said most of the students she surveyed considered sex separate from romance. (Kayla Wong | The Beacon)
By Kathryn Walters, Staff Writer -- walters14@up.edu
Donna Freitas, professor of religious studies at Hofstra University in New York, grew up in a Catholic household where the topic of sex was taboo. Even as an adult, she does not like to breach the subject with her father.
"Whenever he comes over, I put all my copies of my book under the bed," Freitas said.
Freitas' book, "Sex and the Soul," explores romance, sexuality, religion and spirituality on college campuses across America and formed the basis of her "Sex and the Soul" lecture she gave March 26 in Buckley Center Auditorium.
Freitas said the idea for her book came from a course she taught on dating and romance in the college world. She was overwhelmed by the amount of students who were interested in taking her class.
"I opened the door of my office, and I had never seen so many papers," Freitas said. "I remember that I said, 'You guys realize that this class is not a how-to, right?'"
From classroom discussions with her students, Freitas learned that although they freely admitted to hooking up with others at parties and social events, they felt unsettled by the emotional detachment that comes with it.
"In order to not get attached, you have to shut down emotionally to be sexually active," Freitas said. "People are really bad at not getting attached."
Freitas decided to create a nationwide college survey, where she explored student perceptions of dating and sexuality in relation to their religion and spirituality.
Freitas researched American college campuses, from public to private and secular to Catholic universities. Freitas also researched evangelical colleges, but did not include her findings in the lecture because they were so different from the rest of her data.
At the lecture, Freitas shared many statistics about her findings, like the fact that 41 percent of students who admitted to hooking up are upset by this behavior.
A large part of Freitas' lecture focused on the so-called "hook-up culture," where many students feel pressured to have casual sexual flings. The results of her study showed that nearly everyone surveyed had some level of unease with the hook-up culture and that most students considered sex separate from romance.
"Hook-up culture is largely a culture of pretend," Freitas said. "Maybe sex does not come up in romance because it is part of that hook-up culture, where it doesn't mean anything."
Some of Freitas' findings were unexpected, like the similar attitudes between men and women about the hook-up culture.
"Men were dealing with the hook-up culture as much as women," Freitas said. "And that we seem to get guys wrong in our culture."
UP students who attended the "Sex and the Soul" lecture were also intrigued by Freitas' study.
"I was surprised at how Catholic schools had pretty much the same statistics as other universities," sophomore Calvin Tuhy said. "You would think there would have been a difference there."
As a result of attending the lecture, sophomore Nicole Simard found herself reflecting on the hook-up culture at UP.
"Compared to the schools that my friends attend, UP's hook- up culture isn't as ingrained or expected," Simard said. "I don't know whether it's a difference in the student populations themselves, or in the expectations of the community."
Freitas also said that attending a Catholic university like UP can provide students with a different perspective on the hook-up culture.
"What is great about the glacial aspect of religion is that it gives us reasons to slow down and reflect," Freitas said. "Catholic spirituality can offer us a lot in the context of hook-up culture."
Tuhy was also interested to learn that many students separate their romantic lives from their religious lives.
"I was surprised by that because those two are pretty interrelated for me," Tuhy said.
If anything, Freitas hopes she can open a discourse about touchy topics, like sex and spirituality.
"People are less alone than they think they are," Freitas said. "Hopefully, it opens up some conversation of what hook-up culture is at a college campus."
