3 Ways Hook-Up Culture Can Create Stronger Marriages Down The Road
As Millennials, we get a lot of raised eyebrows from older generations about our dating habits. Many of us don’t save our virginities for marriage anymore, and instead, we choose to indulge in the most popular custom of our time: hook-up culture.
The problem with our practices, though, (according to Grandma) is that we’re somehow making our future marriages less special.
However, I disagree completely. I’d like to argue that by taking control of our sexuality and playing the field, we’re actually setting ourselves up to have the most successful marriages in history.
So the next time your old-school aunt disses hook-up culture, present her with these three claims and prove her wrong (mic drop optional):
1. We’ve explored many options, both emotionally and physically.
Many people in our generation know when they’ve found the “right one,” because they’ve been with plenty of wrong ones. We’ve discovered what kinds of partners satisfy us both intellectually and in the sack.
Giving up our sexual freedom by settling down is not something we take lightly. However, because of that, we’re super picky when it comes to choosing a lifetime partner.
Once we’ve found them though, we’re done. And we can leave our hook-up culture confidently, knowing we’ve explored all our options.
When we finally decide who we want to spend the rest of our lives with, we can commit ourselves to that person fully, without speculating about what other relationships could have been like.
We’ll be more loyal to our partners because we won’t start wondering what else is out there 20 years into our marriages. By being promiscuous while we’re young, we’re effectively getting it out of our systems for when we want to settle down.
2. We won’t propose to someone just so we can sleep with them.
Since hook-up culture is the norm among Millennials, we typically don’t have to wonder what someone is like in bed. If we really want to have sex with someone and he or she is up for it, we can just do it. It’s not necessary to propose to a person, or even be in a serious relationship, to get intimate.
While earlier generations might have viewed marriage as a prerequisite for sex, we’re not bound by such restrictions. Basically, guys no longer have to swindle girls into being their girlfriends (or even worse, their wives) just so they can get laid.
Millennials might sleep with a whole bunch of people, but we ultimately reserve the most important thing for the one: a lifetime of commitment.
Consequently, our marriages become more about emotional connections and compatibility, as opposed to mere physical attraction. We satisfactorily grow old with our partners because their personalities are what we fell in love with in the first place.
3. We’ve had our fair share of practice.
Not only is hook-up culture a way for us to play the field, it actually benefits our future husband or wife, too. By making a lot of love while we’re single, we become extra comfortable with our sexuality. We recognize what we like, what we don’t like and what we might enjoy trying in the future.
To be honest, we also become really good at having sex. I mean, we’ve had plenty of practice, and so, we can unleash it all on our lifetime partner.
By the time we’re ready to commit to someone for good, we have all kinds of tricks up our sleeves. This can help us keep the romance alive for years to come, which is undeniably beneficial for both people in the relationship.
The bottom line is this: Hook-up culture isn’t all bad.
It definitely has some perks that closed-minded people of prior generations might not recognize. It’s not their fault, though. They simply came from a different era.
Nevertheless, we can educate everyone on the way relationships are working in 2015, and how they can potentially be the strongest ones yet.
