Students in the Sex Industry: Motivations, Feelings, Risks, and Judgments

Abstract

Student sex work is a current phenomenon all over the world, increasingly reported by the media in recent years. However, student sex work remains under-researched in Germany and is lacking direct first-hand reports from the people involved. Further, sex work remains stigmatized, and therefore, students practicing it could be at risk of social isolation and emotional or physical danger. Therefore, this study examines students working in the sex industry focusing on their personal experiences and attitudes toward them. An online questionnaire was completed by 4386 students from Berlin universities. Students who identified themselves as sex workers (n = 227) were questioned with respect to their motivations to enter the sex industry, characteristics of their job, feelings after the intercourse, and perceived risks. Student non-sex workers (n = 2998) were questioned regarding knowledge of and attitudes toward student sex workers. Most student sex workers reported that they entered the sex industry due to financial reasons (35.7%). The majority reported offering services involving direct sexual intercourse. Disclosing their job to friends, family, or others was associated with less problems with social isolation and in romantic relationships. With a total of 22.9%, student non-sex workers reported never having heard about students working in the sex industry. The most frequent emotions mentioned by them with regard to student sex workers were compassion and dismay (48.9%). There was no difference in happiness between student sex workers and non-sex working students. Through this research, it becomes evident that there are similarities between the student’s motivations to enter the sex industry, their feelings, and the problems they have to face. Moreover, prejudices still prevail about the life of student sex workers. Increasing understanding of student sex work might help those sex workers to live a less stigmatized life and thereby to make use of support from others. The universities as institutions could form the basis for this, e.g., by openly supporting student sex workers. This could help to encourage the rights of student sex workers and to gain perspective with respect to the sex industry.

Exploring Attitudes Toward “Sugar Relationships” Across 87 Countries: A Global Perspective on Exchanges of Resources for Sex and Companionship

“…This may explain why men are more open to it, as several studies have found marked gender differences in sexual drive in the same direction (e.g., Buss & Schmitt, 1993 , 2019 ; Frankenbach et al, 2022 ; Meskó et al, 2022a , 2022b , 2022c ; Trivers, 1972 ; Walter et al, 2020 ). However, it should be noted that women who engage in sugar relationships also face significant peer stigma (e.g., Ernst et al, 2021 ; Grittner & Walsh, 2020 ; Johansson Wilén & Gunnarsson, 2023 ; Scull, 2022 ), which is also likely to play a role in the higher rejection of this sexual activity among women compared to men. For a broader understanding of this phenomenon, it is worth considering that openness to sugar relationships is also associated with psychological variables such as egocentric sexual motivation, Ludus (playful) love style, higher subclinical psychopathy, and Machiavellianism scores (Birkás et al, 2020 ), which are associated with short-term mating strategy.…”

“…Miller ( 2011 ), Motyl ( 2012 ), and Motz ( 2014 ) question whether sugar relationships should be legally defined as a form of sex work, considering that in countries where sex work (and active support for sex work) is banned, no comparable legal provision restricts the access to web services designed for managing sugar relationships. Ernst et al ( 2021 ) focus on the prejudice, stigmatization, and social exclusion targeted at university students involved in the sex industry, which hinders these students in seeking and receiving emotional support from their social environment.…”

Patterns of University Students’ Risky Sexual Experiences and Their Characteristics

“…The results of the author’s research are similar to those obtained in other European countries, e.g., in Great Britain [ 33 ] or Germany [ 34 ] cf. [ 35 ], because, although the percentage of people declaring the provision of various sexual services was 6–7%, sexual intercourse accounted for about 0.2% of the behaviours; thus, it concerned 1–2% of the respondents. The Student Sex Work Project carried out in 2015 at the University of Swansea (2015) shows that 5% of the respondents were active in the sex industry, while only some of them had sexual contacts with clients [ 36 ].…”

“…A separate part of the studies carried out in groups of students concerned engaging in commercial sexual activity, which shows that 5–17% of them provided various sexual services, both in the form of sexual contacts and erotic dance, stripteases or sharing their erotic photos [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ].…”

Whorephobia in Higher Education: a reflexive account of researching cis women’s experiences of stripping while at university

“…Thirdly, the claim that 'there would be no way of explaining why the flyers were necessary or important' also suggests that the experiences of student sex workers are 'Other' and unimportant or at least not of equal importance to student matters more generally. However, based on recent research (see Ernst et al, 2021;Hammond, 2019;Simpson & Smith, 2020), it is now incontestable that a substantial number of students are involved in some form of sex work while at university. This means that the ongoing assertion that 'there are no student sex workers at this institution' is no longer acceptable.…”