Here’s a news story where this claim that I have heard sporadically over the years (IE that many hookers are often college coeds making ends meet) is made yet again. Oddly, for whatever reason, this claim is most often linked with medical or law school tuition expenses.
I always thought of prostitutes as generally being women of mediocre intelligence, with few option and lots of problems, and yet these ranch prostitutes are claiming to be highly satisfied, empowered businesswomen.
I have very little IRL experiences with hookers and their backgrounds. Is this a plausible claim re college students as hookers? Do a notable percentage of young women actually work their way through college on their backs or is this just face saving chatter by the hookers?
I always assumed it wasn’t saving face so much as making Johns more comfortable: “this woman is having sex with me as the most efficient way to work her way through professional school” is a lot more flattering to your own ego/moral sense than “this woman is having sex with me because it’s the only job she could get and would, in fact, do ANYTHING else if she had the option.”
Now, I am sure that in reality the reasons WHY a woman becomes a prostitute vary widely, but the belief that you are practically providing a public service by constributing to scholarship fund is undoubtably reassuring to most customers.
I attend university with a lot of girls who strip or pose for nude photos to earn money for tuition and expenses, and several “escorts” who claim to stop well before any clothes come off. But this is fairly common in university, I’ve been led to beleve. There are a few (well-known on campus) porn actresses - and not just chicks who ended up drunk and secretly filmed. So that goes on.
When it comes to all-out prostituting? I dunno, but I think most girls who were that desparate for cash would turn to stripping, or escort services, or porn first. Hooking, whether on the street or in a brothel, seems pretty extreme. Maybe it happens occasionally, but not very often that I’ve seen or heard about.
My sister regularly uses the threat of “doing what everyone else does” (i.e. drama students getting’em’out) as a way to get more money from my parents. No prostitution need be involved for people to get into exploitative situations.
A few girls from my high school said if they ever needed money they planned to start stripping. I believed them then (and now), but I don’t know if any of them ever went through with it.
I overheard a few drama girls once proclaiming loudly (and proudly) that the beer money for the next few weeks came from nude photos. I believe them too.
The women of the Bunny Ranch make assloads of money (no pun intended), live rent free, set their own hours, choose what they will and wont do, are covered by tremendous security, and know for sure that they are working in a healthy, safe environment.
We can argue the merits of selling sex, but they aren’t doing anything illegal. If the girl has nothing morally against the idea, then why not?
I do know of a few girls who strip (at “private parties” ew) or take nude photos to earn some cash. I could see stripping at the club, as that is a clean, safe environment, but private parties? Yeah, put them down for a, “Gang rape me please!” special. Eep.
I was at a bachelor party where a couple of strippers came to entertain. Only once. The whole show was tamer than one would expect and a very mean looking security guy accompanied them.
I just couldn’t do it. I’d have to be in a very, very desparate position to sell my body. I’d have to feel like there was absoultely no way to pay my rent or bills and there was no other job out there. I mean, I’m a waitress, and I already feel like I’m somehow exploiting myself. Plus, my uncle and his business partners frequent a couple of the popular strip joints, and I’ve had too many uncomfortable run-ins as a patron, I can’t imagine what Christmas dinner would be like if I was an employee.
The funny thing is, I plan on being a lawyer… I can’t count how many hooker/lawyer jokes I’ve heard.
And I don’t think all the blame can be placed on men and their libidos. A share of that has to go to the women who make that choice to stand on the corner or take their clothes off for money. It’s true that some of them don’t have a choice. But many do.
When I was in college I knew one fellow student who did, indeed, prostitute herself for tuition and living expenses. Also to feed her cosmetic surgery habit. Let’s just say she had issues.
I also once worked in a place where a co-worker, a young man with a PhD, had earned some of the tuition for his lengthy education by working as a male prostitute.
So, unquestionably, this does happen and in some instances they’re even sincere about the money going to tuition payments. But that’s just two people out of the thousands I have known in my lifetime, so while it happens I can’t say it’s common.
I think we should note that the information is coming from the brothel owner. Of course he’s not going to say they’re broken down single moms and drug addicts. I refuse to believe that the prostitution industry is lucractive for respectable women that want to make something out of their careers.
I guess you can refuse to belive all day long. Are you actually suggesting prostitution is not lucrative? 10,000 years of human history might tend to differ.
No it’s no somethng you put on your resume but it’s a way to make money. I don’t see why it would be surprising that “professional” women…if they wanted to be, but didn’t have the money to buy there way into the professional class…wouldn’t take this option. They always have.
(Empress Theodora was an…“actress”. Now she’s a saint. Good career path, that.)
So what you’re saying is you don’t respect women who do that. Which is a different question that “would a woman who wanted to be ‘respectable’ ever do that?” Very different question.
In the weeks after my first marriage broke up I patronized a young lady who did exactly this, that is, “escort” her way through grad school. As far as I know she went back to her home state after graduation to start a career she won’t be afraid to tell her neighbors about. She seemed pleasant enough, and I can’t help but think her earnings helped her demeanor. It certainly paid better than any co-op job I’ve ever seen. Talk about exploitation…
(end TMI Alert)
If Mayflower Madam is any indicator there are plenty of college-aged women using this particular form of “scholarship”. If I recall correctly Sidney Barrows preferred to hire women who, if not formally educated, at least knew something of the world beyond the shopping mall. Sure, you’ve got to be hot to bring in the big bucks, but when clients are shelling out US$300 per hour they want something more than SimBarbie.
I can think of two bloggers (Waking Vixen and Educated Slut - no links, some content is NSFW) who are/were sex workers and students. They did it for the money, of course, but not out of desperation because they couldn’t get any other job or whatever. Rather, it followed from their own interests and studies in sexuality.
