Dating at a Distance: Does It Take a Pandemic to Challenge Campus Sexual Culture?1

Abstract

Researchers agree that the predominant scripts of campus sexual culture, normalizing casual encounters with ambiguous distinctions between hookups and dating, offer contradictory risks and rewards for young adults, particularly young women. The arrival of the novel coronavirus in 2020, however, upended the lives of young adults just as they were shaping sexual and romantic careers. We ask, extending critical intersectional approaches, whether the global pandemic, like a natural experiment, might challenge troubling exclusionary as well as gendered aspects of contemporary sexual culture. In‐depth interviews with 40 “twenty‐somethings” completing undergraduate degrees at a selective university at two points over a year apart found that for most the pandemic offered a needed respite. We suggest: first, many young women used the disruption to prioritize their autonomy, with increased partner churn and detachment. Second, some sexual and racial minority participants, and the few with physical disabilities, reported the pandemic normalized their experience as outsiders, strengthening their self‐development. Finally, the more intentional dating practices one participant named “Covid consent” lessened gendered risks of sexual violence and modeled mutual respect for boundaries. While those without class privilege had less ability to enact such boundaries, pandemic challenges may point to healthier, more inclusive sexual scripts.