ABSTRACT
This chapter adopts a poly gaze to analyze the ways in which researchers talk about casual sex, relationships, and gender inequality in heterosexual campus hookup cultures. The poly gaze reveals that researchers often articulate the very same mononormative assumptions about relationships that are circulating in hookup culture. This analysis reveals that the assumption that sexual exclusivity defines relationships and that monogamous coupling is the only other option instead of casually hooking up perpetuates mononormativity and reinforces rather than critically examines the unequal gender dynamics in heterosexual campus hookup cultures. It is suggested that the poly epistemic perspective taken by researchers can go a long way to address the intersection between mononormativity and gender inequality as it operates in American campus sexual cultures.
