As Students Use Sex Work for Bills, Universities Offer No Support

An increasing number of university students are turning to sex work to help cover their educational expenses, and educational institutions are poorly equipped to provide “non-judgmental support” for these students, who can often face backlash and discrimination not only from fellow students but from the institutions themselves, as well as society at large, Britain’s Independent newspaper reported on Thursday. A survey of university students in the United Kingdom released in July found that almost 80 percent say that they struggle to meet their education-related expenses, and more than 10 percent say that they make money for their education by “using their bodies.” While the survey and the Independent’s Thursday report are focused only on the United Kingdom, a similar phenomenon appears to be occurring in the United States as well, though no formal survey has been conducted. According to a Huffington Post article on the “Sugar Daddies” site Seeking Arrangement—which matches older men with younger women for “dating”—about 40 percent of the registered women offering themselves for “dates” with older men are college students. Numerous examples of college student women becoming porn performers have also surfaced over the past few years, including AVN Award winners Carter Cruise and Kendra Sunderland, who started their porn careers while attending college. “But despite the evidence, many universities are ‘turning a blind eye,’ and in some cases actively blocking groups trying to support students involved in sex work,” the Independent reported—noting one case in which a student using sex work to pay bills “was evicted from her home and threatened with expulsion by her university.” Laura Watson of the English Collective of Prostitutes activist group, which advocates for the decriminalization of sex work, told the paper that her organization “has fought a number of cases recently where universities have threatened to throw out students if they do not stop doing sex work.” “Universities are worried about the bad press,” Watson told the Independent. “They are relying on good press and people’s money coming in.”  Photo By Sam Lipoff / Wikimedia Commons