It Just Happens Summary

In the article “It Just Happens”, agreeing to Melanie Beres’ article, by saying that ‘it just happens’, it renounces the responsibility and action in portraying in the encounter of having casual sex. Most of the contributors agreed that alcohol play’s a vast role in the choices and actions that they make. Particularly for women, forwarding the accountability to alcohol allows women to feel less immoral. Though both genders describe their arrangement as “it just happens”, men tend to more often look for casual encounters and one nights stands at clubs and bars as a sign of dominance. Beres talks about five major ques that were significant to the study. The first one, which was just previously mentioned, is the ‘it just happens’ discourse. The
They are commonly seen as the gatekeepers because they have the choice to engage in sexual intercourse or not. Traditionally, women take on a passive role, which allowed them to set boundaries to their sexual activity. However, the norms have changed in the more recent years, and casual sex is accepted for females as well. Men are often willing to have sex whenever, therefore, women can take full advantage of this fact when they are seeking for casual sex. With that being said, women still try to maintain a passive position to avoid judgement from others, and being labeled as a slut or skank
Does the sexual interaction between the two genders come into play together? Or does one side gain more control?
There were two main strengths in this chapter that caught our attention. The first one was the in-depth interviews that Beres conducted with her participants. The interviews allowed the readers to view the different perspectives each sex and individual had. The interviews broaden the understanding of the participants’ actions.The second strength, we acknowledged, was the discourses that addressed the basic reasoning of why casual sex occurs. Beres provided detailed discourses that expanded the understanding of the readers’ knowledge.
We also recognized two main weaknesses in this chapter. The first one was that it fails to address the population that doesn’t participate in casual sex and their opinions. Although casual sex is more common now, there are still people in society that are against engaging in casual sex. Having their thoughts and opinions on this matter would have been beneficial to her statements. Another weakness, we found, was the lack of consideration of the emotional aspect, in casual sex. The chapter focused mostly on the act, and no so much on the emotions. Without addressing the emotional aspect, the readers have no idea how casual sex affects their