The outrageous cost of college tuition is forcing young girls to take desperate measures.

I was at Occupy Cal yesterday to support the protesters and to see what the current happenings are at my alma mater.  Protesters were rightfully and forcefully voicing their valid concerns about how expensive college tuition is and how difficult it is to make ends meet.  Today’s student has to go to some extreme measures to figure out how to pay not only for tuition, but also the cost of housing, food and God forbid a little entertainment.  Navigating these new waters on their own for the first time, each one has to follow their own moral compass to figure out what they are willing to do for money and what is line with their newly emerging ethics and principles.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the Daily Cal and saw that thousands of young women are signing up online to offer their time and their bodies to any sugar daddy who is the highest bidder.

Online hoeing for college tuition - WTF!

The website is called SeekingArrangments.com and was mentioned in an article under the Sex Advice section of the Cal newspaper.  Seeking Arrangements is an online service where young women (and presumably many college women) sign up on the site to offer their service to “sugar daddies”.  Men sign up on the site touting their big wallets and their ability to finance the lifestyle and or college tuition for these women in exchange for their time, dating and whatever comes with it.  As opposed to straight one-night-stand prostitution, the sugar daddy is looking for a paid long-term relationship with these young girls, and the girls are looking for primarily for money (not love or even sex).

College girls who can confirm a .edu address get free membership at SeekingArrangements.com

If you think this is some fly-by-night operation working in the back alley of society, think again.  Seeking Arrangements has over 150,000 members across the country and students from NYU to Cal are participating by the thousands.  The site has been featured by mainstream news organizations to include Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and CNN.

Over 175,000 people have signed up on this site. NYU is the #1 college, Cal is #13

I am no prude, but I must admit that I am thoroughly horrified by this online bidding and sale of women like chattel.  The thought of 50 and 60 year old men paying for the long-term companionship of college-age girls is dehumanizing and the images that run through my mind are quite disgusting.  For an 18 year old young girl opting to be a concubine to some old man just to pay for tuition or worse (just to have fancy clothes and jewelry) makes my skin crawl.

For the readers of this post who have daughters, please talk to them about how wrong this is.  Just because it is on the web and some media outlets cover it does not make it okay.  You will live with this stigma all your life and may wake up when you’re 30 with cold sweats remembering how you sold your body and your soul just for a few trinkets or a degree.

For any young girls thinking about doing this know that basically you are signing up to be a ho.  No sugar coating.  This is hoeing.  Go into it with your eyes wide open because your friends, family and future husband will have their eyes open when you tell them what you did when you were 18.

For the unversities and their regents know that education is a right and turning educational facilities into multi-million sports factories is causing this atrocity.

Return to The AfroBlog