Donna Freitas's Time To Stop Hooking Up Analysis Essay Example

For a few years now, hookup culture has whittled its way into the lives of everyday college students. This issue inspired author and scholar, Donna Freitas, to observe the impact hookup culture is having on the newer generations. In the essay “Time to Stop Hooking Up. (You Know You Want To.),” Donna Freitas argues that the infestation of hookup culture in college is not only forcing people to have sexual intercourse who do not want to, but also leaving people unhappy and confused about intimate relationships. Freitas successfully constructs an argument about how hookup culture is affecting the average college student’s view on relationships and intimacy utilizing the rhetorical strategies of flashback, exemplification, and testimony to support her appeals. 

Freitas successfully crafts her argument by using flashbacks to recall an event from when she was in college. In the flashback, she notes that she and her roommate dressed as prostitutes, and recounts that the costume was her form of sexual experimentation. Freitas narrates, “When I was an undergraduate at Georgetown University in the early 1990s, my roommate and I dressed up like prostitutes for Halloween…I remember that night fondly, even though my feminist sensibilities cringe a little now. For me, that costume was a form of sexual experimentation.” (1). Freitas’s flashback is used as a tactic to relate to her audience. She recounts a moment in her past when she was a young adult and experimented much like others did at that age. By evoking these emotions and memories from her audience, Freitas establishes pathos and in doing so, strengthens her argument. 

Furthermore, Freitas strengthens her rhetoric by introducing the rhetorical strategy of exemplification in her essay to showcase information from a study she conducted. In the study, Freitas gathered students to take a survey on how their peers felt about sex and hooking up. Freitas expresses, “Of the 1,230 students who answered an optional survey question in a study I conducted asking what their peers thought about sex in 2006…41 percent used words such as ‘regretful,’ ‘empty,’ ‘miserable,’ ‘disgusted,’ ‘ashamed,’ ‘duped’ and even ‘abused’ to describe the experience.” (2). Freitas includes the information from her study to express how students are feeling about hookup culture. The study appeals to her audience’s sense of reason and logic (logos), therefore, making her argument more persuasive. 

Lastly, Freitas excels in the formation of her argument by providing her testimony in order to reveal her experience and dedication to the study of hookup culture. She declares that she had been working on this study for eight years, including her initial hypothesis and revelation on the topic. Freitas asserts, “I’ve spent the past eight years investigating hookup culture and talking with students, faculty members, and college administrators about it. I thought I would find that the vast majority of students revel in it, but instead, I encountered a large percentage who feel confined by it or ambivalent about it…” (1). Freitas involves her testimony stating how long she has been investigating hookup culture in her essay to declare her dedication and knowledge on the topic. In doing so, Freitas improves her persuasiveness by establishing how reliable and credible she is on the subject. 

Altogether, Freitas successfully establishes logic, credibility, and emotion in her essay to construct a strong argument about how hookup culture is affecting college students’ views on intimacy and relationships. Freitas supported her ethos, logos, and pathos by utilizing the following strategies: flashback, exemplification, and testimony.