Sexual Liberation In Margaret Wente's Modern Culture Of Young Women

Margaret Wente’s Globe and Mail article on the troubles that young women face in todays modern culture of hookups and liberation is insightful and thought-provoking. Wente attempts to persuade her readers that the emergence of sexual liberation, in today’s modern society, of young women is affecting their emotions negatively. Wente draws in the reader with an emotional appeal; however, the author’s article is undermined due to the lack of strong authority and polarized thinking. Sexual liberation is a modern concept that has risen from a past of sexual repression; resulting in the lack of known effects and consequences of the hookup culture. Wente uses Leah Fessler’s past experiences in university to document the negative consequences of sexual liberation faced by young women. The author argues that young women in our society are taught to see sex as emotionless and meaningless; instead of as one of “the most primal forces in natures” (par. 10). Given the landscape of a modern society where men and females are equals, Wente believes that young

The author uses the true example of a woman’s sexual past and the emotions that arose from these sexual experiences to provoke thoughts that differ from the reader’s modern beliefs. An example of this is the quote taken by Wente from Leah Fessler’s essay. “The sex was lousy too. ‘In retrospect, it’s obvious that I was highly unlikely to have an orgasm with a guy who didn’t know me or care to,’ she writes. Yet she blamed her sexual dissatisfaction on herself” (par.7). The graphic nature and the use of a first- person point of view “to evoke a personal response” (Prinsen 1) and “establish closeness” (Prinsen 1) is what makes this example compelling. Wente primes her article to be thought-provoking by evoking emotions of sadness and sympathy that “affects the reader’s response by addressing them on an emotional level” (Prinsen