By RASHIDAT AJAKAYE STRIDA
Is prostitution a primary decision or shocking solution to overcome challenges? The response to this question can be deduced from the rising sex work by university’s students, in order to overcome the scars of dysfunctional families and heavy protocols of tertiary processes.
Recently, the stigmatization of voluntary prostitutes has become a common anthem. Such that, sex workers who reflect having multiple sexual mates as the most preferable, continue the job with unexpected boldness. It is high time that participants of the world spoke on unintentional prostitution as a consequence of academic, economic and professional inconveniences. There is a need to recall the words of Doctorow, “You’re nothing more than a clever prostitute. You accepted the conditions in which you found yourself and triumphed.”
Tragedy does not strictly men death, it is a descriptive term for unfortunate happenings in real life (Camppo & Carroll, 2023). Tragedy entails something sorrowful, disheartening, or an incident that breaks positive anticipations. Contemporary denotes modern or recent times’ people, activities, ideas, innovations and other sundries. Therefore, all that modern times encompass can be referred to as contemporaries (Cindy, 2023). Sex work by students of the universities has become an old behaviour since some students still dress indecently despite the legislative arm of tertiary institutions stipulating laws and consequences against indecent wares.
Yet, there exist some sets of students who dress decently; yet, they engage in unintentional sex work for specific reasons. Due to the hardened aids of the university’s environment, these sex workers eventually become addicted to attaining heights or overcoming economic challenges via sex. Definitely, both sex: male and female fall victims. Some of the reasons for this unintentional prostitution are: dysfunctional home background, misinterpretation of students’ sociable strategy, hurried and uncalculated nature of university’s processes, with intentional blindness of parents and guardians to students’ expensive lifestyles.
First off, dysfunctional home background is a cause of rising sex work by university’s students. A dysfunctional family is a family is a family that has tough interactions which the family ignores and masks. The relationship of such families are impaired and members are incapable of attaining closeness and self-expression. This is because of the fear built in the mind of mostly young members of such families (Holland & Abulhosin, 2022). Also, dysfunctional families are usually identified by conflict, disorganized structures, chaos which halts the meeting of children’s physical and emotional needs (Li, 2023). These needs include: finances, healthy communication, support, love, respect and others, which assist the growth of children and stability of their mind. Sometimes, either the mother or the father takes the total responsibility of the child (children). The child realizes this heavy workload on the mother or father. Hence, the child of such home does not want to announce this single parent incapable, the child never tells the single parent whatsoever he or she is not capable of. Such children feel smart and decide to fetch these needs elsewhere. They are always eager to say negative utterances about the negligent-parent. Such serious students meet elderly ones with the educational setting for academic bills like: materials, printing, textbooks, transportation fare and many more. Sexual opportunists become the intervening helpers and they demand sex from these ambitious sets of students. It has been submitted that lack of parental monitoring and guidance is one of the causes of women engagement into prostitution (Information Parlour, 2023).
As these sex working occurs to both male and female students, it becomes a habit that appears as “mutual rape”.
In addition, the misinterpretation of students’ sociable strategy is another principal cause of sex works by university’s students. Students who have admirable social skills can interact clearly, calmly and respectfully. They consider the needs and plights of people around them, with also being observant. They love to create and develop relationships (Rollo & Mazarin, 2023). They are always eager to meet new people and assist in productive activities. Sometimes, sociable students are humble to a fault, eager to resolve conflicts and not able to give negative responses to offers. When students are sociable and willing to develop their intelligent quotient; they aspire and work towards being with productive adults. A publication also submits that such students volunteer to care for elders, make gift for adults, teach technological concepts to simplify the daily activities of adults, and love to listen to family histories of elders (Boyington, 2022). In recent times, they employ their creative skills to show appreciation to elderly one for mentorship. Such creative strategies are: poetry adulation, graphic design, singing, sowing and many more. After these innovative strategies, these supposed adults do not only develop interest in mentoring these involved students, but also nurse sexual hunger towards psychomotor students.
There is a culture of interpersonal dynamics between mentoring associations and relationships. This dynamism situates a bridge between close mentoring and the relationship’s possibility (Morgan, 2008). In order to feed the thirst of ambition and economic hardship; these students are subjected to sex works. These student begin to develop their dreams and support expenses at the expense of sexual integrity. Not one sexual partner, not just two, but multiple sexual partners. Sometimes, when a mentor does not display romantic urge towards these students, the latter feel the mentor I strange and abnormal.
Furthermore, the unfavourable and uncalculated nature of university’s processes is a trigger of students’ sex working. Students who are academically upright often experience academic burnouts, in order to meet heavy workloads of schooling activities. Universities face over-population, especially state and federal tertiary institutions. This is drawn from the focus of university authorities paying attention to revenue generation at the expense of quality education. Lecture halls are usually uncomfortably filled (Steemit, 2021). Such that, first-rate students secure seats by being thirty minutes earlier than the fixed lecture time. Smart students become aware of negative effect of thee hurried and over-populated culture of the Nigerian universities, which are: unemployment, migration, weak learning, extortion, inefficient provisions of facilities and others (Oden, 2023). Resultantly, students put in their best efforts to earn imitable and outstanding grades. Yet, the hurried academic sessions and shortage of staff cause poor results to some smart students. Thee exhausted students do not feel encouraged and decide to lubricate their hard-work by backdoors. Most of these students have no finances to bribe opposite sex lecturers.
Therefore, university’s students offer their body in ceaseless manners. They sex work in multiple offices as “academic campaigns” before results are out. Such students are desperate about awardable grades and do not want to be brilliant on paper alone.
Obviously, the intentional blindness of parents and guardians to university’s students is a common reason for sex work by university’s students. Some parents see the tertiary institution as a means of running half-way from their primary responsibilities as parents. They are not inquisitive about new wares, gadgets and expensive signs that students develop. Parents and guardians pretend not to observe these changes because they feel financially relieved and care less above these university’s students. It has also been published that parents should be transparent with kids about the impact on the former’s finances, with also giving as efficiently as possible (Braverman, Snider & Segal, 2023). This entails that enough financial support should be given to children, with also telling children how it has affected your financial security is equally necessary. This will enable them to realize how highly they are placed and help them calculate when they start taking their financial obligations independently. Also while raising children at earlier age grades (3-8years), it is advisable to teach them financial management. Some of money management terminologies are: what money looks like, where money comes from, what money is used for, how to use money wisely, how to value money and many more (Raisingchildren.net.au, 2023). Wherefore, students become conscious of every money they spend outside parenting pockets and vice versa. Contrastively, parents do not feel bothered about the expensive movements which their schooling children cultivate. A student does not work and affords money to buy expensive phones, costly wares, well-decorated room and other sundries. How else, if not sex working with “cradle snatchers” masquerading as philanthropists.
With the aforementioned, it is evident that one of the rising tragedies of modern age is students’ sex working to meet bills.
Sex working is not only a habit of wayward or unserious student, but also a shocking option that smart student have been conditioned to live by. Some of these factors that speed the rate of sex working by university’s students are: dysfunctional home background, misinterpretation of sociable strategies of students, unfavourable and uncalculated nature of university’s processes and intentional blindness of parents and guardians to students’ expensive lifestyles. These stimulating agents of sex work by university’s students need to be put into appropriate investigations and modifications. Such that, university’s students would cease from conquering career, educational and financial issues via sex working. Sex work by students of universities is spreading like sand particles. These sand particles has stained some unserious and serious students. Mentors and parents should avoid underneath activities which they would not be able to teach the public. Let parents be conscious and effective parents, let teachers be passionate teachers, let mentors be authentic mentors and let students be respectful, ambitious and vigorous. Sex working by university’s students is a false goal which has been coached by the intersecting branches of socialization.
Rashidat Ajakaye Strida can be reached via Ajakayerashidat@gmail.com, +2349030871024
