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‘Pretty Woman’ students sell sex to fund degrees
The Sunday Times ^
| May 11, 2003
| Simon Ostrovsky
Posted on 05/10/2003 4:14:08 PM PDT by MadIvan
ONE DAY Vera Golubeva would like to live in the West and work as an accountant, but she has no hope of a grant to finance her studies so for now she is selling her body on a street in St Petersburg.
Golubeva, 22, is far from being an exception. A study has found many women who work as prostitutes both in Russia and abroad are not the poor, uneducated victims of coercion they are portrayed to be; they have consciously decided to become sex workers to pay their way through university or college.
The study, carried out for the MiraMed Institute, a Moscow-based organisation that tackles sex trafficking and social issues, found many Russian women were drawn into prostitution by the Pretty Woman syndrome.
Shonda Werry of Chicago University, who carried out the research, said women told her they had been impressed by films such as Pretty Woman that make the lives of sex workers appear glamorous. Like Julia Roberts, who plays the prostitute heroine, they hope to meet a rich man who will whisk them away to a comfortable life abroad.
I have a few foreign clients who are in love with me, said Golubeva, who is doing a correspondence course in accounting. I could pretty much get any of them to get me a visa to their country if I wanted, but Im waiting for the right one.
She started dancing in a club on Nevsky Prospekt, St Petersburgs main avenue, but moved to the street after a dispute with the owners.
Golubevas situation is typical, said Werry. Many college girls talk about prostitutes glamorous lifestyle and are impressed with the benefits that come with the job.
A few Russian prostitutes do appear to succeed in establishing relationships with foreign clients and go to live with them abroad. Many more do not. Student sex workers are often more concerned with making money than insisting their partners use condoms.
MiraMed, founded by Juliette Engel, an American doctor, has been campaigning to warn young women of the dangers of prostitution and discouraging them from responding to advertisements for lucrative work abroad.
People assume prostitutes just come from poor economic backgrounds; this just isnt true, said Engel.
It could be a struggle to persuade many like Golubeva who are already in the business to quit. I can make $250 on a good night, she said, and my bosses have flashing lights on the roof of their car, so I dont get any trouble from anyone.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: Illinois; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: college; education; funding; hollywood; prostitution
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I've heard college education is getting expensive, but this is really ridiculous.
Regards, Ivan
1
posted on
05/10/2003 4:14:09 PM PDT
by
MadIvan
To: alnick; knews_hound; faithincowboys; hillary's_fat_a**; redbaiter; MizSterious; Krodg; ...
Bump!
2
posted on
05/10/2003 4:14:23 PM PDT
by
MadIvan
To: MadIvan
What is it with the new PC "Sex Workers"?
What ever happened to prostitute??
Or Whore?
Or Ho?
Or Slut?
Or Lady of the Night?
etc.
3
posted on
05/10/2003 4:18:17 PM PDT
by
netmilsmom
(Bush/Rice 2004- pray for our troops)
To: MadIvan
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
4
posted on
05/10/2003 4:20:01 PM PDT
by
ChadGore
(It's all an Amish plot)
To: MadIvan
bttt for later read. LOL, I think? . . .
5
posted on
05/10/2003 4:20:59 PM PDT
by
MeekOneGOP
(Bu-bye Dixie Chimps! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
Comment #6 Removed by Moderator
To: netmilsmom
"Sex workers" sounds so...so....communist, so Eastern bloc, so 1984-ish.
Even "working girl" sounds better. Or "sporting woman". Or "fancy woman". Or "streetwalker". Or "call girl".
7
posted on
05/10/2003 4:25:31 PM PDT
by
wimpycat
('Nemo me impune lacessit')
Comment #8 Removed by Moderator
To: walkingman
Ohh Lookee Here... An educated slut. Hey, that's today's society! When I've posed as a poor man, nothing.....when I have shown my wealth, babesaplenty!
To: MadIvan
said women told her they had been impressed by films such as Pretty Woman that make the lives of sex workers appear glamorous. Like Julia Roberts, who plays the prostitute heroine, they hope to meet a rich man who will whisk them away to a comfortable life abroad. ah,hollywood moral values exported,and fools believe it.
To: MadIvan
Reminds me of a dumb joke:
TEACHER: Students, I want you to use the word horticulture in a sentence.
STUDENT 1: You can lead a whore-to-culture but you can't make her think.
Somehow, this fits doesn't it? I mean, more concerned about getting the money than the condom and all. Nothing particularly new to the profession, but displays lack of thinking of the future for sure.
11
posted on
05/10/2003 4:33:05 PM PDT
by
Wneighbor
(aka Mrs. Field)
To: walkingman
What ever happened to prostitute??
Or Whore?
Or Ho?
Or Slut?
Trollop, Tramp, Harlot.
That's the spirit!
Sex workers" sounds so...so....communist, so Eastern bloc, so 1984-ish.
Even "working girl" sounds better. Or "sporting woman". Or "fancy woman". Or "streetwalker". Or "call girl".
All of those are better. "Sex Worker" put me in the mind of "Coffee Taster" for some reason. You know, those people who taste and spit?
12
posted on
05/10/2003 4:35:18 PM PDT
by
netmilsmom
(Bush/Rice 2004- pray for our troops)
To: MadIvan; Cathryn Crawford; Senator Pardek
"I'm here to help you pay for college."
"Matriculate?"
"I got here as soon as I could."
13
posted on
05/10/2003 4:35:26 PM PDT
by
gcruse
(Vice is nice, but virtue can hurt you. --Bill Bennett)
To: Wneighbor
Dorothey Parker alert! That was her quip! "You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think."
14
posted on
05/10/2003 4:36:05 PM PDT
by
annyokie
(provacative yet educational reading alert)
To: Wneighbor
That was Dorothy Parker asked to use horticulture in a sentence at the Alqonquin Round Table in New York in the 1920s.
15
posted on
05/10/2003 4:36:42 PM PDT
by
gcruse
(Vice is nice, but virtue can hurt you. --Bill Bennett)
To: wimpycat
Pls see post 12. Sorry to have missed you on the reply.
16
posted on
05/10/2003 4:37:45 PM PDT
by
netmilsmom
(Bush/Rice 2004- pray for our troops)
To: MadIvan
From this week's
OnionStripper Failing School She's Working Self Through
LAS VEGASExotic dancer Tricia "Mercedes" Hrlevich, 22, who is stripping to put herself through school, is failing her Red Rock Community College business classes, sources said Tuesday. "I definitely want to do something with, like, business," said Hrlevich, who has received Fs on three straight economics exams. "Dancing at Cheetah's [Gentlemen's Cabaret] is just a way of getting closer toward that goal." Hrlevich then accompanied a balding 54-year-old to the Champagne Room, where she earned $60 toward a Psych 101 textbook she will never read.
To: walkingman
Ohh Lookee Here... An educated slut.
Hey! She can make change...right?
18
posted on
05/10/2003 4:39:49 PM PDT
by
ErnBatavia
(Bumperootus!)
To: MadIvan
Maybe some day you folks will explore the meaning of "capitalism". (Hint: it isn't always something you like).
19
posted on
05/10/2003 4:42:24 PM PDT
by
Wolfie
To: walkingman
What ever happened to prostitute?? Or Whore? Or Ho? Or Slut? Trollop, Tramp, Harlot. or strumpet
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