Check out this Huffington Post story on the emerging sugar daddy business in colleges and how many students are selling their bodies to pay of their debt. You could call it the answer to Chris Rock’s assertion that he’s never got a smart lap dance. Here are some highlights:
” ‘It’s a very expensive job,’ says Jack, a 70-year-old sugar daddy, who describes himself as a ‘humanitarian’ interested in helping young women in financial need.”
“Wade, whose legal name is Brandon Wey, says he changed his name to better appeal to his clientele. ‘They’re more familiar with Hugh Hefner than with some Asian guy from Singapore,’ he explains. Wade got the idea for Seeking Arrangement more than 20 years ago, while in college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology… Debt-strapped college graduates weren’t included in his original business plan. But once the recession hit and more and more students were among the growing list of new site users, Wade began to target them. The company, which is headquartered in Las Vegas, now places strategic pop-up ads that appear whenever someone types ‘tuition help’ or ‘financial aid’ into a search engine. And over the past five years, Wade says he’s seen a 350 percent increase in college sugar baby membership — from 38,303 college sugar babies in 2007 to 179,906 college sugar babies by July of this year.”
“Roberts asked 315 college students at a university in London about their participation in sex work. The findings were stark. Nearly 17 percent said they would be willing to participate in the sex trade in order to pay for their education, while 11 percent indicated a willingness to work directly as escorts. A decade ago, only 3 percent answered in the affirmative. Today’s respondents are far more likely to have peers who are working in the industry.”
” ‘Yeah, sure, he could have been a psycho, a killer,’ says Jennifer over breakfast. At nine o’clock in the morning, she’s in a full face of makeup. On her profile she describes herself as a yoga teacher and personal trainer. ‘Barring rape or death, what’s the worst thing that could happen to me?’ “