Coming of Age in New Jersey by Michael Moffat Essay

Michael Moffat studied the life of college students in a co-ed dormitory nutrition environment at Rutgers University in the late 1970s and mid 1980s. His book, Coming of Age in New Jersey College and American Culture draw on writings of unfeigned students and provide detailed accounts of the sexual histories and activities of both male and female students living in the dorm.He writes what he learned as an actual resident living with the students who understood that he was researching their habits and experiences. He lived with them and studies them as an anthropologist would. The book focuses largely on sexual life of students but also touches upon race, work ethic, gender and community living. It seems that in all of these swerves are related and Moffat is able to tie untold of the actions and attitudes together.A common theme throughout the book is that the life of college students is non quite as vehement and sex filled as society in general might assume. In fact, the exper ience may be less wild that the prospective students themselves expected. This was credibly a relief to many of them and in fact, is in all probability that the family set and morals that they brought to college with them were responsible for the reality of life in the dorms. It seems that new college students do not cash in ones chips all of their past experiences of knowledge at home when the come to college. They apparently have learned and formed opinions and come with a set of expectation for satisfying and unacceptable behaviors.The book also discusses the difference between expectations of general college living and the actual experience. The societal expectation or assumptions of student life, and what in truth occurs is discussed. Relating the sexual legal action and romantic relationship to students morals and prior learning is interesting. While slightly of the stories are disturbing, many of them lead one to believe that children actually do listen to and learn fr om their parents. The morals and beliefs of home follow these students to the college dorm.Moffat notes the difference between living in a dormitory like environment such as an apartment or even boarding home, and living in a college dorm. In the college dorm there is an expected sense of community and commradery and the university does much to encourage the friendships and support that this living arrangement offers. Adolescents are transitioning from home to the life of an independent adult and the community living is meant to offer a degree of watch and support. The effects of this arrangement on the actual experiences of students in interesting to the reader.Chapters 5 & 6 are titled Sex and Sex in College respectively. These chapters provide the lucubrate on the relationships and sexual experiences and habits of the students. Moffat assemble that students fell into several groups including those who were involved with to a greater extent conservative and traditional monogam ous, heterosexual relationships that involved love and affection. This was the largest group. Others fell in to the groups of experiments and those having some casual relationships that involved sex. This group, for the most part include those who arrived at college more experienced sexually. Moffat grouped the students into several distinct types in terms of sexual activity. These included neotraditional, romantic, experimental, radical, liberal and the nonheterosexual population.He was clear to note however, that every student or pair of students involved with a relationship were different, with their own set of idiosyncrasies. Most however, were interest in committed, consensual, heterosexual relationships. Orgies, no matter what the movies and pop culture may imply, were not at all the norm on the college campus. E also found that for most students, their schedule was o busy and the conflicting schedules of their partner or potential partners made sex a rarity for many.Roommate s and social issues of community issue further hampered the free love environment one might have expected. The students that reported experimenting with locations such as outside or in classrooms, the library or on the bus seemed driven as much by the lack of privacy as by the desire to be an exhibitionist. The book note that the 1980s came with the ability to easily prevent pregnancy with the availability of birth control so sex could be enjoyed more freely than in the past. Still, traditional values and the need for committed relationships held out.The fact that the college dorm was set up like a pseudo family, seems to have resulted in some degree of modesty and restraint. Moffat negotiation about how students would surely not walk around naked or provocatively in front of each other on the floor openly. Students or dorm mates related to each other to at least some degree, as they would act around siblings and family members in general. Those who did dare to walk to the consume wearing only a towel, for example were made fun of and the comments made were much like the comments one would make to a sibling. These relationship alikeity presumable resulted n some curbing of the sexual behavior at least among floor mates.Moffats book reports the facts and shows data and bell curves and comparisons from the 1970s to the 1980s. He does not draw a lot of conclusions or cause and effect relationships. That is left for the reader to do if he wishes. The book does seem to indicate that college students are more focused and serious than movies such as Animal House would have one believe.Unfortunately, this book does not address at all the realities of the effects of drugs and inebriant use on college campuses. Living with the students, Moffat did not want to report on issues of substance abuse as he was concerned about the openness of his subjects if they felt that he was potentially a narc.This dimension however is so important to the living experiences of colleg e students that a glaring hole is the result. Anyone familiar with college living lead notice the missing piece of information, particularly for those who lived in college dorms during the 19070s and 1980s when drug and alcohol use was so much less regulated than it is nowThe relationship between substance use and sexual activity would have been interesting to note. The issue of traumatic sexual experiences and events linked to alcohol use would likely have been linked. A study today of sexuality on campus, looking at he issue of substance abuse as well as the increased awareness of sexually transmitted diseases would be very interesting to compare to Moffats original study. One would expect that the outcome would be similar to the original study in terms of understanding the relationships between values, morals, family environments and sexuality.