Virginity auctions combine the idea of prostitution and advanced technological advertisement through the Internet to make a fortune for women.
It’s the new and improved way to become a prostitute. Because it’s only one night, it can’t mess with your mind forever. Plus, the financial rewards of a single deflowering may pay more than an entire prostitute's career.
If it only took 12 hours of your life to give up what moralists consider the most precious gift a woman has for a monetary return that could change an entire lifetime of financial decisions, it may almost sound worth it.
Many people disagree with this business because sex is “too cherished to be sold,” but we're all aware that prostitution is a very real thing.
As media reiterate regularly that men find a woman’s attractive body most captivating, young girls follow the media's lead. Young women realize the ways they dress, talk and act with men are the earliest steps of seduction.
Sex is less valued now than it was 100 years ago, because it’s so much easier to find and less often binds the definitive boundaries of a committed relationship.
These virgins know being young, beautiful and untouched will lure men who are willing to pay astronomical amounts for a night of no boundaries.
Girls sold their virginity for about the last 10 years, but the most recent name in the deflowering market is Elizabeth Raine.
A 27-year-old medical school student decided to begin her own virginity auction on April 1. She says the financial incentive is her biggest motivation, but she doesn’t need the money and is looking forward to the thrilling and erotic experience she is about to have.
Of course, her publicist wrote her biography and justifications for this “adventure” of hers. No young beautiful girl would willingly spend her first time with a john unless the financial rewards overly compensated for a night of horror.
While the interviewers gape and women all over think that she and all the other girls following this trend are absolutely insane, it’s not that crazy of an idea.
My personal moral beliefs would never condone behavior like this, because I disagree with prostitution entirely. But what needs to be acknowledged is that prostitution is about men, not the women.
Men will pay for sex time and time again. Human trafficking is real, and so are brothels and plenty other forms of paid sex. Even strip clubs and the porn industry fall into this category.
Men’s carnal desires drive women to solicit themselves for high prices. It’s easy to look at a prostitute and think, “She must be a whore,” or, “Wow, she must be a drug addict.”
Prostitutes who have escaped the vicious sex market speak on their daily objectification and sickening lifestyles. None of those who escaped enjoyed having sex with strangers and using their bodies as a way of survival; they felt they had no choice.
As men continue to line up at brothels and hire prostitutes, desperate women are going to be there, willing to do what it takes to survive. Maybe that street corner hooker is not a drug addict. She could be a desperate mother trying to keep her child fed and alive. She could be the victim of sexual abuse who was thrown into the system too young to know a way out.
It’s not about sympathizing for the women having sex for a living or even for one night. It’s about coming to the realization that they can easily become financially set by having sex. It’s a modern way to compensate for, say, school debt or unemployment fears. They have a product that clearly seems to always be in demand.
We all know sex sells, in media and in real life. Prostitution and human trafficking are economically profound businesses, despite their illegality.
Virginity auctions seem to be a new wave and growing trend among young women and this market is probably posed to grow larger following the publicity of Raine's bid.
She hopes to make near $250,000, which is less than past virginity auctions yet still enough to drastically change her life.
She reiterates on her website and in each interview that this is what she wants. Despite money, she thinks it will be thrilling, sensual and life-changing. Because she is a medical student, I have to believe that the only reason this is even an option is the security of a debt-free medical school experience.
Regardless of the incentives validity, men will bid on her body. Men are the driving force of all forms of prostitution, including virginity auctions. They are the customers while women are the suppliers.
Reach the columnist at aubrey.mccleve@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @theartsss
