This Zine is filled with a few personalstories about hookup culture and feelings about the topic from gay men in Stockholm, which I then Illustrated
These stories were collected through interviews and discussions held through zoom calls
What would you like to mention about hookup culture that may not be commonly known?
What is hookup culture anyways?
Hookup culture or “casual sex” is basically when two people have a sexual relationship without any strings attached, for example feelings or actually knowing each other. (APA, 2013) Hookups have been part of our lives for years and years, both for hetero cis people and queer people. There are stories about hooking up as late as in the 1920´s when it started to become more frequent, back then you met someone at a bar, the cinema or maybe in school. But nowadays it is more prone to happen online on dating apps. (APA, 2013)
According to a study made by Zoosk, hooking up with someone has never been easier than now with the help of dating apps. The problem with that is that it easily turns into an addiction for the user. The reason for that is that everytime you hook up with someone new and you have an orgasm the user will automatically start associating the hookup app with pleasure and therefore keep coming back to it.
(Zoosk, 2020)
What happens at a usual hookup do you think?
How do you think hookup culture and hookup apps affect young gay men?
The article also talks about how hookup culture may prevent gay men from looking for partners and therefore also prevent themselves from entering a long term relationship. That is because most gay dating apps are heavily focused on a sex first mentality. Grindr is obviously one of these apps as well. But they also say that just because the app may be designed for sex it does not mean there are no people on there looking for a long term relationship. But due to the app’s design it is much harder to actually find these people. (Zoosk, 2020).
Gino Cosme also have a article about how Grindr and other hookup apps make you develop an addiction because of how a hook up from one of these apps will reward you with an orgasm, and the article also informs us that the pleasure centers that are in the brain are the same ones used by people that are addicted to drugs and alcohol. So just as easy as it is for an alcohol addict to turn to the bar, it is just as easy for someone to log in to a hookup app and find a hookup. (Gino Cosme, 2022)
The primary app the article talks about is Grindr, because it is the biggest and most known gay hookup app there is. Here we can see a connection to the disgust that is so often talked about when it comes to gay men feeling like they will never find a serious relationship due to the addiction that hookup apps can develop. (Zoosk, 2020)
What are the expectations of a hookup?
In conclusion the problem with hookup culture and hookup apps is not the sex itself, sex is good and can actually be very fun when it is for the right reason. The problem with hookup culture is when it becomes an addiction or a defense mechanism to not have to feel emotionally vulnerable with yourself or others. When you let hookup apps become an addiction because it makes you feel good in the moment, you are not having sex for the right reasons anymore.
The importance of this project is to start conversations about this topic and vulnerability, to talk about how sex can be good for a person’s mental health but also how it can be very bad for them. To keep these discussions going may be the cause of hookup apps stopping targeting people with these kinds of problems to begin with.
I would really like to thank my gay friends for contributing with their expieriences, feelings and thoughs about gay hookup culture. Without them this project would not have become a reality.
Reference List:
American Psychological Association, Sexual Hook-up Culture, 2013 https://www.apa. org/monitor/2013/02/ce-corner , (Received 2023-02-04)
Gino Cosme, Grindr Addiction - A Concern for Gay Mental Health?, 2022, https://www. ginocosme.eu/blog/grindr-mental-health , (Received 2023-07-03)
Zoosk, How The Gay Hookup Culture Is Affecting Mental Health In 2020, 2020, https:// www.zoosk.com/date-mix/dating-advice/gay-dating-advice/gay-hookup/ , (Received 2020-02-04)
