Have you ever been on the old-fashioned kind of date where the date is dinner and a movie, followed by an awkward moment of indecision as he walks her to the front door.
Chances are, you have been on this kind of date. But they are few and far between. Old-fashioned dating on campus is about as common as cognac at a frat party. Instead, students turn to house parties to meet the opposite sex.
There are several clear reasons why this type of social event has trumped one-on-one dating.
The house party is the human version of a lek, a term used to describe an area set aside for communal breeding displays and courtship during the mating season. This lek provides comfort and profitability for both sexes looking to engage each other in a social situation.
The comfort aspect of the house party is primarily for females. Arriving at a venue with several friends, the female feels less vulnerable to "date rapes and getting screwed over" as freshman Erica Goodwin puts it.
Additionally, an increased sense of comfort allows girls to release a positive "energy," says junior Dylan-Lacey Fleish, that will attract like-minded males.
Males also prefer groups at house parties for comfort reasons but not for the security issues that concern females. Instead, male groups use comfort to help each other look cool, a rather large branch on the tree of attractiveness.
Being cool is a mathematical function of the number of your friends also deemed cool, multiplied by how many Dr Peppers you can drink in an hour, divided by your shoe size. If, however, you are wearing Von Dutch paraphernalia, multiply the equation by zero.
While house parties provide levels of comfort for both sexes, it is also a more profitable event, economically and socially, than one-on-one dating.
House parties usually provide refreshments for its patrons. Because of this, females are still able to reap the economic benefits of one-on-one dating: not paying.
By attending a house party, they can drink all the, um, Dr Pepper they can hold down without spending a single cent -- even those under the legal Dr Pepper drinking age.
In addition, as opposed to one-on-one dating, females are no longer tied down to a single male for the evening. They are free to wander the house, eyeing several different males.
Male profitability at house parties is quite similar to the female scenario.
For starters, a guy can ask one female to come to a house party, knowing they are going to bring their friends. Thus, by asking one girl to a party, he is actually inviting a small group. In doing so, he is not only helping himself but also his friends.
As senior Anthony Dominguez put it, "You have to spread the wealth."
Spreading the wealth is also a much cheaper financial investment according to freshman Adam Peterson. Buying Dr Pepper and cranberry juice for a house party, to be taken in by many females, is much more efficient than providing for a single female.
The house party is the compromise between the sexes for access to specific resources -- each other and Dr Pepper. Males use female comfort to attract more females, while females use male economic efficiency for free refreshments.
With such a cooperative social arrangement provided by house parties, or leks, it seems that old-fashioned dating is coming to an end.
It looks like from now on it's backyards and basements. I'll bring the funnel -- for the Dr Pepper.
Noah Lewkowitz is an architecture graduate student. You can tell him where the party is at noah.lewkowitz@asu.edu.
