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When Megan Cowley jumped onto a bed and snuggled up to the women in lingerie offering grapes, I knew I had invited the right person to the Maxim Bud Light Hook Up party.
So started the second event in a month where I had to watch otherwise normal-looking single people solicit dates on a stage.
Along with the harem on the bed, every detail of the recent party at the Erwin Center was planned to make people feel beautiful and sexy.
"Paparazzi" photographed guests against a red carpet. Women, again in lingerie, hit each other with pillows in one hand while holding a Bud Light in the other.
Partygoers visibly having a good time were caught on video. Screens that used to show Kevin Durant making jumpshots instead projected images of people laughing, kissing and sipping from Bud Light bottles.
The logic? When people feel attractive, the party's director told me, they have a better time.
It was certainly working for Cowley, 27. Dressed in tailored shorts, high heels and a hot pink tank top, she is not shy.
We were at a "hook up" party, and although that kind of thing wasn't going on, I wanted to get her take on this phenomenon of hooking up that's in all the dating books, either good or bad.
"I think women should be able to hook up any time they want," she said.
Cowley sees it as a sort of evolution. Women gained independence financially, so women don't need men as much. Women might not be looking for husbands — but we could all use a little fun.
Cowley's perspective is a common one. Academic studies have shown that young singles have foregone dating in favor of "friends with benefits" and hookups.
But the path that led her to the Maxim party differs from most. Cowley grew up in Utah as a Mormon.
And so the woman who still gets scolded by Mom for drinking coffee marched up to Jordan Rohe, 22, whom we agreed was the most attractive guy at the party.
Unfortunately, Rohe was doing what too many people do at bars — texting.
Rohe tells us that he just got out of a yearlong relationship, and in fact, he's spent most of his adult life attached.
"If I'm single too long, I'll think something's wrong with me," Rohe, 22, said.
"You're sitting at a great party texting — that's what's wrong with you," Cowley replied.
Burn.
Unlike most bars in Austin, the Maxim Bud Light party attracted a crowd that was diverse in race and social group.
The only commonality was that they all seemed to work in the service industry. And most were single.
The service part was because the party was invite-only. Promoters passed out codes for entry at bars and clubs for a few weeks leading up to the Sunday night party.
The single part is easy. Call an event a "hook up" party, add Maxim girls and free beer, and you guarantee that at least the men will show up.
The "hook up" came as a culmination of an online video dating contest where the winner chose from a bunch of women with the audience's help.
Oddly, this was the second live dating contest I had seen in a couple months. The other was at a Pimp Your Friend party at Six downtown, where friends of the opposite sex "pimped" each other out, responding to questions that you won't find on eHarmony.com.
At the Maxim Bud Light party, I put aside the bored looks of the dancers in underwear, some caged in by walls of water. I ignored a guy who left the party for a strip club, saying he wanted the women to take it all off.
As for Cowley, she forgave Rohe's partyfaux pas at the end of the night with a kiss and a phone number.
By Andrea Lorenz
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