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The dark side of an MIT brain

tech.mit.edu

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Re: The dark side of an MIT brain

#31

Post by delinka »

"...exploiting college women by taking advantage of their financial need..."

Let's replace 'college women' with 'software engineers.' Where's the difference? You need money, you have a skill set, you trade your skills for money. Is that not exploitation?

How about at the "lower" end of the wage pool? Are employers not "exploiting" teenagers with "financial need" by paying the teens minimum wage?

Lest you reply "but ANYONE can have sex," allow me to suggest that you might not have the ability to offer me sex in a manner for which I am willing to pay. I don't get this taboo against paying for sex.

EDIT: I am aware that a thread on this topic appeared while I was typing. It happens.

Re: The dark side of an MIT brain

#32

Post by [deleted] »

loup-vaillant wrote: post #18
zacharyvoase wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of interest, why would you make that assumption?

Because others did: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution#Consent Studies also show that most women in prostitution, including those working for escort services, have been sexually abused as children.[link]

[deleted]

Re: The dark side of an MIT brain

#33

Post by hyperbovine »

zacharyvoase wrote: post #15
pyre wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd also like to see the correlation between prior sexual abuse and selling sex at college. I would assume that those who were abused may be more likely to do so, but by how much? Is the group of students that do this 99% abused (1% not) or is it closer to something like 60/40?

Just out of interest, why would you make that assumption?

I completely agree with his assumption based on my PhD in Loveline.

Re: The dark side of an MIT brain

#34

Post by reader5000 »

I think the basic argument the writer was failing to make is that it seems a bit of a waste of an MIT education for a guy to make a prostitution website.

More disturbing was the site's creator trying to align his site with MIT's admittedly idealistic "mission statement" with the obtusely reductionistic argument that a business wouldnt have customers if it didnt "create value".

It would have been less disturbing if the creator was just like "yeah it's kind of fucked up and sure some of the girls are going to regret doing it but hey it makes me a lot of money and thats enough for me."

Maybe the more interesting debate is, had MIT known this individual was going to spend his education on running a prostitution website, should it have admitted him?

Re: The dark side of an MIT brain

#35

Post by johnnybgoode »

Leaving aside the arguments about prostitution for a moment, I think it's fair to say that a number of these women (not all) are uncomfortable with being prostitutes and are only doing it to pay for college. College is expensive largely because it is essentially the policy of this country that everyone, especially women[1], ought to have college degrees. We've seen how student tuition rises along with student loan limits; we've seen how students tend to go to college somehow no matter how expensive tuition is, how much debt they're getting into, or how important the degree is.

In these terms, far from being contrary to the spirit of universities like MIT, this type of prostitution arrangement service is in keeping with the proclaimed importance of college education. I.e., going to college is considered so important that many female college students are now willing to prostitute themselves (something most of them would not ordinarily do) to make sure they can keep attending.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=611440

Re: The dark side of an MIT brain

#36

Post by csomar »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #10
DennisP wrote: post #3

"When a young woman is in desperate need of money and a wealthy man comes along and uses that vulnerability to get sex, that's the definition of exploitation." Seems like you could also say: "When a man is in desperate need of sex and a young woman comes along and uses that vulnerability to get money, that's the definition of exploitation."

You could also say, "When a young man is in desperate need of money, and a wealthy corporation comes along and uses that vulnerability to get work, that's the definition of exploitation."

Culture and society put aside, all of them are the same. They are exchanges. You get something in exchange for something else. No exploitation in all of these cases. Exploitation is when you give something, getting nothing back; because you are forced to do it.

When the girl went and connected with the sugary daddy, no body obliged her to do so. No exploitation here. She could have worked hard to make money, save, take some loans and carry on her education. She definitively picked the easiest road.

Re: The dark side of an MIT brain

#37

Post by joe_the_user »

pyre wrote: post #14
zacharyvoase wrote: post #6

Gosh, that was judgemental. I suppose it was intended to be an opinion piece, but it took prostitution to be wrong a priori , with no discussion or justification of this premise. Bandying about words like ‘exploitation’ is, frankly, cheap. The phrase “exploiting young women and enticing men to have extramarital affairs” reveals several of the author’s strong inner biases (to wit, that women are weak and men are evil)…

I'd also like to see the correlation between prior sexual abuse and selling sex at college. I would assume that those who were abused may be more likely to do so, but by how much? Is the group of students that do this 99% abused (1% not) or is it closer to something like 60/40?

I doubt the correlation is as high as the correlation with ... needing money.

And while one might say there are always college students needing money, my impression is skyrocketing tuitions combined with an ethos of "sell anything you can to succeed" makes this site very much "of the now"...

Re: The dark side of an MIT brain

#38

Post by joe_the_user »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #10
DennisP wrote: post #3

"When a young woman is in desperate need of money and a wealthy man comes along and uses that vulnerability to get sex, that's the definition of exploitation." Seems like you could also say: "When a man is in desperate need of sex and a young woman comes along and uses that vulnerability to get money, that's the definition of exploitation."

You could also say, "When a young man is in desperate need of money, and a wealthy corporation comes along and uses that vulnerability to get work, that's the definition of exploitation."

And I recall that that is something like the definition Karl Marx used...

Re: The dark side of an MIT brain

#39

Post by wmf »

Tichy wrote: post #28

I thought desperate need is starving, freezing, facing eviction, not "struggling to pay for a college degree". Can't you put those degrees on hold for a while (not sure how the system works)?

Many high-school students are told that you have to have a college degree to get any job above subsistence level, so student loans look like the only option.
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