The Changing Sexual Landscape

Abstract

I examined the sexual landscape of today to understand it and see how it is changing. Social perceptions tell us that many of the old scripts are still being used such as dating, but I began to wonder. How is the double standard still seen in today’s relationships? How are people forming these relationships? What is the level of sexual activity in these modern “dating” relationships? I conducted an online survey of 178 adults (mainly with college students) to try to answer these questions and to try to understand the social landscape of dating. Because there is no socially accepted definition of relationships, I asked respondents about their “sexual or romantic” involvements. This research focuses on the sexual behaviors of college students and the new dating script known as “hooking up.”