Virgin market helps causes

How much would you sell your virginity for?

My questioning of UCLA undergrads got answers ranging from 25
cents to “I’m priceless, but for everything else
there’s …”

However, there are women who’ve decided to attach a price
to their supposedly intact hymens. While men could potentially also
auction off their virginity, the only one I came across wanted to
be paid to take yours, not give up his.

Rosie Reid, a lesbian student at Bristol University in England
who had never slept with a man, auctioned off her virginity (with
the support of her partner) in order to help pay for her
education.

She was working long hours to pay her tuition and housing
accommodation, but it was interfering with her academic success, so
she decided to take drastic measures.

She initially attempted to sell her virginity on eBay, but when
it removed the offer she moved the auction to her own Web site. She
then met with the top five bidders and chose the
“winner.”

She went through with the act in a hotel room, losing her
virginity to a 44-year-old divorced man and father of two
children.

And she didn’t do it for pennies ““ the offer was for
8,400 pounds, or about $16,000.

Personally, I think the idea is ingenious. Not only did she
bring attention to the cost of higher education, but she also will
be able to pay off a large portion of her school debts.

While some people may consider their virginity priceless, just
the act of auctioning it can get you the attention and funds you
desire.

Another young woman from Peru, Graciela Yataco, also decided to
auction off her virginity.

Yataco has worked since she was 8, and dropped out of school
when she was 15 in order to earn money for her family and keep her
younger brother in school. Her mother was too sick to work.

She later decided she was tired of her family’s situation
and auctioned off her virginity in order to pay her mother’s
medical bills and improve her family’s quality of life. The
highest offer, $1.5 million, came from a Canadian man.

She turned it down.

Still, it wasn’t all for nothing. She got a generous offer
from a businessman to pay for her education. But her family’s
story is similar to thousands of others in Peru, and while some
people have concentrated on the fact that she is selling her body,
her actions have brought attention to Peru’s situation.

However, many Peruvians weren’t so happy with her
entrepreneurial skills. For some, it became a matter of national
pride to keep Yataco’s hymen intact. Many critics thought it
was just an act to get publicity, and others thought she was out to
shame Peru.

I think auctioning off your virginity is one innovative
publicity stunt, and should be commended. Especially since it has
worked.

Yataco’s stunt got her education paid for, and Reid can
now pay off about half her debts. The fact that one went through
with the act and one didn’t is irrelevant ““ they got
what they wanted and brought attention to some important
issues.

While auctioning off my virginity wouldn’t cross my mind
for a variety reasons, I don’t see anything wrong with others
selling theirs, especially when it’s for a decent cause.

Besides, you might as well do something useful with your
virginity. Using your virginity to pay for your college education
is much more respectable than losing it in the back of a car to
someone you barely know.

I think I might even value my virginity more if it had paid for
my college education. As it is, people overemphasize the connection
between purity and virginity.

Yataco put it perfectly: “I think virginity exists in the
mind, not really in a little membrane.”

You can have a pure heart and pure intentions without being a
virgin. People are stuck on the idea that sex is dirty, sinful and
wrong.

And this attitude has led to a police investigation of Rosie
Reid’s actions. They are looking into her on charges of
prostitution. Fortunately, her university has decided her decisions
are hers, and hopefully the law will concur.

People forget that sex is simply something humans do, and
there’s a market for it. So if you want to sell off your
virginity, by all means, do.

If you have vast sums of money, Lara will be a virgin for
you. E-mail her at [email protected].