With college tuition rising to outrageous levels where many students are forced to choose between large amounts of debt or life without higher education, it’s no wonder that some are willing to go to extremes to pay their way through college.
Recently, an ad ran in the Cal student newspaper that encouraged students to try out for strip clubs around San Francisco in order to pay for college.
The Huffington Post reported that the ad read, “Are you fun, flirty and a little adventurous?"
The ad continued, "Then we are interested in meeting you! You don't need experience. Make your own schedule. Great money to be made — in CASH. Professional management teams are in place at these SF locations to help you achieve your financial goals while in school.”
Many have begun to wonder if work such as porn or stripping is no longer such a big taboo. Could this be a new social norm? The real question should be: How do we fix tuition so students don’t feel that they need to be subjected to this kind of work?
Even more extreme, Duke student Belle Knox recently became entangled in a scandal when it came out that she did porn to pay her way through college. After the truth came out, she was harassed and bullied online by her classmates.
Knox says the real issue isn’t that she is harassed by her choices but that students feel the need to resort to this kind of a job to support themselves. In a report with CBS, Knox said that she was only making $400 at her waitressing job, and it wasn’t enough.
In the interview by Aimee Picchi of CBS, Knox says, “If Duke had given me the proper financial resources, I wouldn't have done porn. They have nobody to blame for the scandal but themselves,”
While Knox isn’t advocating for the porn star industry, she does believe that the amount of loans Americans take out for college is ridiculous and drastic changes should be taken.
According to Fastweb.com, the amount of outstanding student loan debt is $1.1 trillion and $26,600 is the amount of debt that an average college student graduates with.
There is a huge backlash among the media and our society when girls revert to this kind of work in order to get by. Unfortunately, the jobs considered appropriate for college students only lead to salaries for the essentials and that barely include rent, certainly not college tuition.
Colleges need to understand that in order for students to graduate and become successful adults, they can’t be burdened with so much debt. For now, it’s become apparent that the more loans students are forced to take out, porn and stripping are headed down the path of becoming more of a rite of passage to higher education.
Reach the columnist at Kassidy.McDonald@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @kassmcdonald
