Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the University’s hookup culture is once again in the spotlight.

Helen Rittelmeyer recently reviewed Nathan Harden’s “Sex and God at Yale,” but presented an alternative understanding of the hookup culture. Although Harden faults the loss of morality and religious values as the reason for the University’s pervasive hookup culture, Rittelmeyer argues that Yale’s sexual climate is actually the natural outgrowth of students’ aim for perfection in all fields.

“It would be more accurate to say Yale students treat sex as one more arena in which to excel, an opportunity not just to connect, but to impress,” Rittelmeyer writes in her review for First Things.

Numerous hookups and Sex Week’s workshops are a means of improving performance and reaching excellence, Rittelmeyer argues.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, is it a time for love, hedonism or practice? Rittelmeyer thinks the latter.