I need a job. I’m not broke, but I’m definitely on a tight budget. I’ve lost count of the number of resumés I’ve printed out and handed in over the past few weeks, the number of phone calls I’ve made and the number of e-mails I’ve sent. I claim that I’m prepared to do just about anything to be one of those fortunate people with a steady job. The stress of paying for tuition, rent, bills and being able to pay back my student loans when I graduate weighs heavier on my shoulders every day.
Occasionally, in moments of panic and desperation for an income, I even jest about turning to prostitution. But for others, this is no joke. Students are taking these sorts of desperate measures to pay their way through school.
Natalie Dylan, a Sacramento State graduate student, is auctioning off her virginity to pay back student loans her stepfather allegedly applied for in her name (and then ran off with the money, leaving her with the debt). She plans to get her master’s degree in family and marriage counseling, but she needs a way to pay for it. The current bid is as high as $3.7 million, reports say.
According to a recent article in the Ann Arbor News, Yaron Eliav, an associate professor, and a 22-year-old law student at the University of Michigan face charges for prostitution/accosting, solicitation and using a computer to commit a crime after exchanging sex for money. The student told police she was advertising sex on Craigslist to help pay tuition costs.
A Kansas State University student in need of money was cited by the Riley County Police Department for prostitution when she arranged to meet someone to exchange sex for money and the person turned out to be a police officer. “I wasn’t thinking it could be bad for me – I was just thinking I couldn’t pay my rent,” she claimed. The student was taken to court, where she faced possible misdemeanor charges. The punishments for illegal prostitution in the U.S. include having to pay a maximum of $1,000 and/or spending up to six months in jail.
I would sooner sell everything I own, move out of my apartment and build myself a makeshift shelter of sticks and blankets than become an object to be purchased, used and disposed of in the blink of an eye. However, these college students, unable to pay monthly bills and panicking about paying off steep loans, chose to try their luck at prostitution, evidently because they can see no better alternative.
Students have also found alternatives to conventional prostitution. A college student in Pennsylvania under the pseudonym Melissa Beech tells her story of finding a “sugar daddy” in a November article in The Daily Beast, an aggregate news Web site. In searching for a job, Beech met with a man and began a “mutually beneficial relationship.” He was a successful single man in his early 30s, and looking for a companion who would not place stress and pressure on his already hectic lifestyle. He provided her with a monthly allowance, paid her rent, showered her with a steady stream of gifts, and even took her on regular vacations. What did she give in return? “My stipulations were that I wanted to wait until I knew him better before we had sex, and I needed distance between him and my family,” Beech says. “But in the first month I was already swept off my feet.”
Students may also find legal ways of using their bodies to pay for tuition, rent and food. Strip clubs throughout Eugene and Springfield employ students from Lane Community College and the University. Other venues are calling for younger women with less clothing, and the employment opportunity does seem quite tempting. However, again, the issue is the reasoning behind taking the job. A friend of mine recently came across a posting on Craigslist that called for young females to work at a new coffee shop coming to town -wearing sexy, barely-there outfits. The application process involves submitting five photos of yourself in various in sundry bikinis and/or lingerie with the name of the company written somewhere on your body (to verify that the photos aren’t old). Though she opted out of applying for the job because she wanted to be appreciated and tipped for the coffee she would make and not for how much skin she was willing to show, other college students might jump at this opportunity.
I understand there are many young women who choose to work at strip clubs because they enjoy dancing and the attention and money they receive from doing so. Granted, it is at least a legal way of earning a sizeable amount of cash. Financial pressures can be crushing, but a woman should not have to feel as if she has to have sex for money simply to pay the bills. Desperate students might want to explore the possibility of applying for work-study, taking out more loans or working for the on-campus dining services. Or, if it’s not possible to make a rent payment on time, negotiate an extension with the landlord. And while these choices may not be ideal, they will almost certainly be better alternatives in the long run.
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