A Web of Hos

Screenshot of the escort website Seeking Arrangement

What if I told you that at UCLA, there are enough prostitutes on campus to comprise an entire lecture hall? Not just one of those smaller, major-specific lecture halls, but one of the huge ones characteristic of a G.E. class? A little bit hard to believe, right?

Well, believe it. Just the other day, as I did everything I could possibly do on my laptop other than follow along with the Powerpoint presentations in the middle of a lecture for a $4,500 class, I came across an article on KTLA about the recent increase in sugar babies on Southern California college campuses. Sounds like a relatively sweet and cutesy topic, doesn't it? I mean, "sugar babies" just sounds like another nickname for sorority girls or college co-eds in general, something like "house bunnies."

Well, for those of you who don't know, "sugar babies" is actually the name given to girls who seek to be the beneficiaries of sugar daddies. Of course, we're all grown and privy to what sugar daddies are: men who are more than happy to spread the wealth among the less fortunate. And by less fortunate, we're not talking about the people we'd find on Skid Row here. We're talking about gold diggers - really hot, young gold diggers.

This particular article described how a survey of an escort website, Seeking Arrangement, revealed that of the universities here in Southern California, UCLA had the most sugar babies of all with 180 young women willing to provide men with "companionship" for anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 per month. USC came in second with 70 students signed up, UC Riverside  third with 69, UC Irvine fourth with 64, and Cal State Northridge came in fifth with 59.

Considering that my baby sister is currently a Bruin, this fact did not sit well with me. Thankfully, I know her well enough to say without any doubt in my mind that she isn't one of the 180. Still, I've visited her enough times to see that UCLA is the typical college campus, with incredibly intelligent people who are there for a world-class education, yet still like to let loose every once in a while at the occasional frat party. However, that's a far cry from prostitution. Sugarcoat it with whatever cutesy name you want, but let's be frank here and call sugar babies for what they are: prostitutes. And considering there's 180 students enrolled on Seeking Arrangement (enough for that large lecture hall I previously mentioned), I couldn't help but to wonder if any of my sister's friends or even roommates could possibly be one of these sugar babies.

When you think of college, you don't think of prostitutes, right? Well, hopefully you don't, even after reading everything I just wrote above. You think of the young, ambitious, wide-eyed pupil, ambivalent about the next four years but excited to enjoy newfound freedom. Conversely, when you think of prostitutes, you don't think of college, right? Your mind instantly flashes to the crack whore you've seen all too often on the occasional Cops or Law and Order shows, the ones with dirty hair, ripped fishnets, and a face full of smeared makeup. To think that these two worlds could collide was mind-blowing. And it had me thinking, what else about prostitutes do I not know? I mean, it's only the oldest profession in the book; surely it hasn't been prevalent in every time period, region, and culture in solely the form of the crack addict on the corner, as illustrated by past royal mistresses and concubines.

Prostitution is such a taboo topic. All we'd like to know of it is that it exists, it makes for great television (especially when the cops set up those intense sting operations), and we and the people we love are not involved in it. That's as far as we'd like to know about it. Yet, how do we explain the doctors, priests, and teachers who somehow always manage to get caught during these sting operations? How do we explain why such a taboo topic is the oldest profession in the book? And lastly, how do we explain the participation of so many individuals, ultimately allowing prostitution to have persisted throughout these countless years?

As you'll come to find out, prostitution doesn't purely exist in the form of the local crack whore. Like these sugar babies at UCLA, USC, and UCR seeking financial assistance for college tuition, prostitution is a web in which countless lives, stories, and motives are entangled.