5 ms·

Students are turning to sex work for extra money

43 points by technobabble 8y ago

Bucephalus355 8y ago
This has been going on for a while. At the dorm I lived at in Austin back in 2015 for a 1 year masters (more like a co-op for older students), every woman there was on the website Seeking Arrangement (https://seeking.com https://seeking.com). This emerged after someone, more of a joke at first, took a poll on this at a house meeting (weekly governance thing). It’s enormously tempting. Every freshman girl knows at UT that if she wants, there is a guy waiting to give her between $1,500 - $3,000 a month. It’s spread into high schools now, usually either because teachers are found to be on the app or a rumor spreads through the school about a girl being on there. It made The Daily Texan, the student newspaper of UT, a few months ago: http://dailytexanonline.com/2018/09/11/college-sugar-babies-have-a-place-in-feminism http://dailytexanonline.com/2018/09/11/college-sugar-babies-...
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > It’s spread into high schools now There were major media stories about it in high schools...in the (early, IIRC) 00s. It's not somewhere it's spread since 2015.
black-tea 8y ago
They blame this on higher student expenses yet clearly only women are able to get money from sex so how are the men able to survive? Why not just be honest? Women are selling their bodies not because they need to but because they want to.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > clearly only women are able to get money from sex While the opportunities are greater for women, men also get paid for sex (predominantly, though not exclusively, by other men.)
  - klyrs 8y ago
    I've known male sex workers who exclusively service women. Their clientele were predominantly older, wealthy women. Turns out that powerful women are just as lonely as powerful men... and that they similarly enjoy the freedom of a financial arrangement over an romantic entanglement. The solution to this apparent inequality is... hire/promote more women into executive roles.
- notatcomputer68 8y ago
  >so how are the men able to survive? Maybe they(equivalently poor men) are not and therefore choose not to study? Men do study at a lower rate after all
  - black-tea 8y ago
    Bullshit. It's not even remotely true that you have to be wealthy to study in the UK. I received absolutely no financial support beyond the standard student loan and managed to save money. If I decided to sell my body online it would have been for extra cash, not because I needed to.
    - fyfy18 8y ago
      I also supported myself through the loans and working part time (in a supermarket from 16 - 21), but I don't think your comment is really fair. Bear in mind: a) Prices for accomodation have gone up a lot in the last few years. At my university in the south west, rental prices for off-campus accomodation have roughly doubled since I was studying a decade ago (and at the time they were one of the most expensive in the UK). Even with the maximum maintenance loan it would only just cover the cost of accomodation (assuming you only need to pay for term time). 2) The means-tested grants and loans expect higher earning parents to support their children at university, but a lot don't. I believe in this case your parents can make a written declaration that they won't support you, which allows you to get the full loan and grant, but this option isn't made clear. 3) A lot of people are just bad at managing finances, and spend money on things they don't really need. Schools really need some sort of financial education, but I guess it's too profitable to bankers for people to be educated on how to be sensible with their finances.
      - black-tea 8y ago
        OK, so how are the men supporting themselves? It's certainly not through prostitution.
        DanBC 8y ago
- coldtea 8y ago
  >Women are selling their bodies not because they need to but because they want to. How about "because they need to AND can" (whereas the men might also need to, but cannot, there's not as much of a market).
  - Banksy_is_Qanon 8y ago
    Lolwut. You think there’s not a market for gay prostitutes ? Uhh... there is.
anovikov 8y ago
Lol, so someone's 'learning difficulties' prevent her from getting and holding onto a simplistic part-time work, 'forcing' her to do prostitution, but does not prevent doing full time education? Something is wrong there.
- T-A 8y ago
  Obvious interpretation: her learning difficulties required her to spend all her waking time studying just to pass, and the part-time work made that impossible.
- pjc50 8y ago
  Not unusual - the part-time market in student towns is obviously swamped with students, so employers can easily refuse anyone even slightly impaired.
- DanBC 8y ago
  Universities are somewhat better than shit job employers at complying with Equality Act 2010 duties to make reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities.
- thatoneuser 8y ago
  Unpopular opinion incoming: I’ve known girls who have done sex work. Mostly smaller things like selling used clothes, or pretending to be into a guy for gifts, but a few who straight up were prostitutes. They always had a story of “having no other choice”. The reality every time (again, from those I knew. Not trying to generalize and claim I know them all) was that they weren’t “forced” into it at all. They just preferred that work because they made way more money than what they’d do working and it was easier. But they didn’t like the fact that sex work would negatively impact their future (jobs, relationships, etc), so they came up with victimhood stories to justify it. No idea if that’s what’s happening here, but if I had to wager money I’d wager it’s along those lines based on my experiences. I see a few others in here mentioning that universities handle learning disabilities. I think if you’re so mentally disabled that you can’t hold a part time job, it’s probably not a great idea to invest 100k into a college education. I don’t know many jobs that require a college degree that are easier to succeed in than working for a min wage job at 10-20 hours a week. So sure, the universities are more accommodating. That’s because they want that 100k pot on your head. If the reality is you can’t hold down part time work for mental disability, I think we need to have yet another discussion on where the ethical line is for universities endenturing students futures for their short term financial gains.
dgzl 8y ago
I want to be a sugar man baby, where is the equality!?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
Proven 8y ago
It seems many prefer to be exploited for $200 vs $10 per hour... Good on them! More money for less work. What's not to like?
InGodsName 8y ago
There is normal in Japan/Korea/China hell even India in Mumbai where people are more outgoing. Also, how much money do you need for education in uk these days? People look at risk vs reward. Sex is no longer a tabbo and arguably it's the easiest and most natural work. Incels will be infuriated at this. Very soon we'll see news that top 1% sleep with 90% students.
juicethecat 8y ago
I'm surprised at the comments missing this, but it's not younger generation paying these prostitutes. It's older generation who sold them lies and stole their future. Another raindrop in the ocean of reasons, the youth are turning populist.
thatoneuser 8y ago
I’m in a devils advocate kinda mood, so hopefully people here can take a spirited prod: So where does equality fit into this? I don’t think this phenomena is so rampant that double digit percentages of women are doing this (though I have no idea), so this whole thing probably isn’t that big of a deal. But honestly, if this entitles women to an easy and maybe even comfortable way of making big dollars in their youth/lack of talent, what will we do to enable young men to also pay for school/living/etc in their youth? I mean if I could send some self destructing photos to older women in college with no social/professional ramifications and make 1-3k a month, I would never have worked the shitty part time jobs I did. Doesn’t really seem like an egalitarian idea for half of the population to be able to take the easy path while the other toils away.

43 points by technobabble 8y ago

This has been going on for a while. At the dorm I lived at in Austin back in 2015 for a 1 year masters (more like a co-op for older students), every woman there was on the website Seeking Arrangement (https://seeking.com https://seeking.com). This emerged after someone, more of a joke at first, took a poll on this at a house meeting (weekly governance thing). It’s enormously tempting. Every freshman girl knows at UT that if she wants, there is a guy waiting to give her between $1,500 - $3,000 a month. It’s spread into high schools now, usually either because teachers are found to be on the app or a rumor spreads through the school about a girl being on there. It made The Daily Texan, the student newspaper of UT, a few months ago: http://dailytexanonline.com/2018/09/11/college-sugar-babies-have-a-place-in-feminism http://dailytexanonline.com/2018/09/11/college-sugar-babies-...

dragonwriter 8y ago
> It’s spread into high schools now There were major media stories about it in high schools...in the (early, IIRC) 00s. It's not somewhere it's spread since 2015.

black-tea 8y ago

They blame this on higher student expenses yet clearly only women are able to get money from sex so how are the men able to survive? Why not just be honest? Women are selling their bodies not because they need to but because they want to.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> clearly only women are able to get money from sex While the opportunities are greater for women, men also get paid for sex (predominantly, though not exclusively, by other men.)
- klyrs 8y ago
  I've known male sex workers who exclusively service women. Their clientele were predominantly older, wealthy women. Turns out that powerful women are just as lonely as powerful men... and that they similarly enjoy the freedom of a financial arrangement over an romantic entanglement. The solution to this apparent inequality is... hire/promote more women into executive roles.
notatcomputer68 8y ago
>so how are the men able to survive? Maybe they(equivalently poor men) are not and therefore choose not to study? Men do study at a lower rate after all
- black-tea 8y ago
  Bullshit. It's not even remotely true that you have to be wealthy to study in the UK. I received absolutely no financial support beyond the standard student loan and managed to save money. If I decided to sell my body online it would have been for extra cash, not because I needed to.
  - fyfy18 8y ago
    I also supported myself through the loans and working part time (in a supermarket from 16 - 21), but I don't think your comment is really fair. Bear in mind: a) Prices for accomodation have gone up a lot in the last few years. At my university in the south west, rental prices for off-campus accomodation have roughly doubled since I was studying a decade ago (and at the time they were one of the most expensive in the UK). Even with the maximum maintenance loan it would only just cover the cost of accomodation (assuming you only need to pay for term time). 2) The means-tested grants and loans expect higher earning parents to support their children at university, but a lot don't. I believe in this case your parents can make a written declaration that they won't support you, which allows you to get the full loan and grant, but this option isn't made clear. 3) A lot of people are just bad at managing finances, and spend money on things they don't really need. Schools really need some sort of financial education, but I guess it's too profitable to bankers for people to be educated on how to be sensible with their finances.
    - black-tea 8y ago
      OK, so how are the men supporting themselves? It's certainly not through prostitution.
      - DanBC 8y ago
coldtea 8y ago
>Women are selling their bodies not because they need to but because they want to. How about "because they need to AND can" (whereas the men might also need to, but cannot, there's not as much of a market).
- Banksy_is_Qanon 8y ago
  Lolwut. You think there’s not a market for gay prostitutes ? Uhh... there is.

anovikov 8y ago

Lol, so someone's 'learning difficulties' prevent her from getting and holding onto a simplistic part-time work, 'forcing' her to do prostitution, but does not prevent doing full time education? Something is wrong there.

T-A 8y ago
Obvious interpretation: her learning difficulties required her to spend all her waking time studying just to pass, and the part-time work made that impossible.
pjc50 8y ago
Not unusual - the part-time market in student towns is obviously swamped with students, so employers can easily refuse anyone even slightly impaired.
DanBC 8y ago
Universities are somewhat better than shit job employers at complying with Equality Act 2010 duties to make reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities.
thatoneuser 8y ago
Unpopular opinion incoming: I’ve known girls who have done sex work. Mostly smaller things like selling used clothes, or pretending to be into a guy for gifts, but a few who straight up were prostitutes. They always had a story of “having no other choice”. The reality every time (again, from those I knew. Not trying to generalize and claim I know them all) was that they weren’t “forced” into it at all. They just preferred that work because they made way more money than what they’d do working and it was easier. But they didn’t like the fact that sex work would negatively impact their future (jobs, relationships, etc), so they came up with victimhood stories to justify it. No idea if that’s what’s happening here, but if I had to wager money I’d wager it’s along those lines based on my experiences. I see a few others in here mentioning that universities handle learning disabilities. I think if you’re so mentally disabled that you can’t hold a part time job, it’s probably not a great idea to invest 100k into a college education. I don’t know many jobs that require a college degree that are easier to succeed in than working for a min wage job at 10-20 hours a week. So sure, the universities are more accommodating. That’s because they want that 100k pot on your head. If the reality is you can’t hold down part time work for mental disability, I think we need to have yet another discussion on where the ethical line is for universities endenturing students futures for their short term financial gains.

dgzl 8y ago

I want to be a sugar man baby, where is the equality!?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

Proven 8y ago

It seems many prefer to be exploited for $200 vs $10 per hour... Good on them! More money for less work. What's not to like?

InGodsName 8y ago

There is normal in Japan/Korea/China hell even India in Mumbai where people are more outgoing. Also, how much money do you need for education in uk these days? People look at risk vs reward. Sex is no longer a tabbo and arguably it's the easiest and most natural work. Incels will be infuriated at this. Very soon we'll see news that top 1% sleep with 90% students.

juicethecat 8y ago

I'm surprised at the comments missing this, but it's not younger generation paying these prostitutes. It's older generation who sold them lies and stole their future. Another raindrop in the ocean of reasons, the youth are turning populist.

thatoneuser 8y ago

I’m in a devils advocate kinda mood, so hopefully people here can take a spirited prod: So where does equality fit into this? I don’t think this phenomena is so rampant that double digit percentages of women are doing this (though I have no idea), so this whole thing probably isn’t that big of a deal. But honestly, if this entitles women to an easy and maybe even comfortable way of making big dollars in their youth/lack of talent, what will we do to enable young men to also pay for school/living/etc in their youth? I mean if I could send some self destructing photos to older women in college with no social/professional ramifications and make 1-3k a month, I would never have worked the shitty part time jobs I did. Doesn’t really seem like an egalitarian idea for half of the population to be able to take the easy path while the other toils away.