This article is a response to David Brody’s article “The Ugly Truth: Why We Drink”. David claimed that the reason we drink at Washington University is that the students here are particularly ugly. I’ve heard this complaint many times since I arrived four years ago. Hearing this has always infuriated me, because as I walk around campus every day I notice dozens of women that I wish I were hooking up with (but am not hooking up with).
The ugliness complaint is typically expressed by male students who are not quite happy with their sex lives. Instead of blaming themselves for their sexual frustration, they blame the student body for being below their standards. Usually, they are referring to the females.
My hunch is that the majority of our students are overworked and undersexed. Can one blame them for a lack of sex? Not really, but I’ll try anyway. Washington University is not a sexually liberated environment. Because we are overworked, we don’t tend to socialize with new people very often. Socializing leads to sexual encounters that are maybe even alcohol free. Instead of sexuality always permeating the air (as it would if we let it), you rely on the weekends for possible sexual activity. You go in search of the random, drunken hookups (the form of romantic engagement most frequented by Wash U students). You get dressed up “nice”, then get into a room with other similarly minded (drunk) people and hope things happen.
A fraternity party seems like a good bet for those in search of a hook-up. People are drunk (or at least used to be), people are dancing to sex-oriented music (the same tracks every weekend for the whole year or maybe even longer), bodies are touching, things may happen. But even though fraternities seem like a place where people are meeting new people and mingling, it is simply an illusion. Most people at fraternity parties tend to stick to their isolated circle of friends, making that packed party, in reality, just a bunch of friends in the same room. These are not ideal conditions to meet someone that you hit it off with.
The next option in search of a drunken hook-up would be a non-frat party. Unfortunately, people don’t dance at most of these parties, partly due to noise restrictions on and off campus. It is rare that a conversation with a stranger at a party leads to sex (though it does happen). It is just as rare that you’ll have a conversation with a stranger.
The final option for booty is dating. The University, however, is not a very date friendly environment. Dating is not a typical activity. It is not a normal thing to ask someone out for the weekend. (In other eras, dating would be highly sought after.) Since dating is not typical here, not a lot of students try to do it.
Sexual frustration at Washington University is not to be blamed on a lack of sexual candidates. If there is anything we can blame the University for, it is that the professors give so much work that socializing, which leads to sex, becomes difficult. The student body’s close-mindedness toward sex and dating is also a problem. We’re a school where if you make out with someone of the same sex at a party, everyone stops and stares. Other schools have naked parties. Try getting students here to do that. We’re like high school kids, but less fun.