Get a clue, Katherine!

I sent this in as a letter to the editor. They didn't publish my letter, but they did publish a letter from another reader who schooled Katherine on the necessity of date-rape lectures on college campuses. I took issue with another part of her article:

Katherine Kersten’s August 30, 2009 article, titled “A Counter to the Empty Lure of Promiscuity” is a complete joke. She and Cassy Hough, founder of the Elizabeth Ascombe Society both bemoan the so-called hook-up culture on college campuses. They both fail to see that they are incredibly out of touch and could both use a good chiropractor who could help with the strain on their necks that must come from craning to see the rosiness of the Fifties.

I started college in 2002, one year before Hough. Sure, there were a lot of kids who were hooking up. There were also a lot of kids who weren’t. It was a choice we made for ourselves. It’s sad, really, when someone is so insecure about the choices she makes that she has to create a society around it and give interviews to pearl-clutching newspaper columnists.

Perhaps the reason for Hough’s disappointment is the fact that finding a husband at college is a laughable goal. Kersten claims that “Eighty-three percent of college women say that marriage is an important life goal for them and two-thirds would like to find a spouse at college, according to a survey done several years ago.” Several years ago, as in 1950? These data are meaningless. Here’s some real data: the average age for a man getting married in 2003 was 27.1 according the US Census. That explains why Hough had a hard time finding a man with his sights set on marriage while she was in college.

If you want to get married at age 20, that’s your choice to make. But college is not a place to find a mate. It’s a place to study and earn a degree. If what you really want out of college is an engagement ring, skip college altogether, create a Match.com profile, and give your spot at college to someone who wants to learn.