I learned two important things in researching this article. The first is the large number of people that admit some part of their debt problem was related to porn or the sex trade, and, when you search for porn debt there are some very odd results. Be careful.
Not long ago I wrote about the niche of financial domination. See The Erotic World of Financial Domination and Money Slavery.
That article was both surprising and enlightening about how people can let their financial lives be run by their lust for emotional gratification that may have a sexual component.
According to a study in the UK, 25 percent of people seeking debt help reported spending on sex, watching porn, getting lap dances, or visiting a brothel led to their debt problems.
In the UK study, single men were most likely to spend money on sex related activities. Women comprised the smaller segment of respondents.
In the U.S. a Pew Research study found that “four-fifths of adult-content internet users in our sample are men and one-fifth are women.”
Over the years I have assisted a number of people that have had spending issues related to underlying sexual drivers. These consumers are good examples of how for many the problem debt isn’t the problem, but the symptom.
Dealing with the debt without dealing with the underlying debt driver may not resolve the problem, just postpone it. Being aware and subconsciously listening for possible clues that some sexual behavior is leading to problem debt, is important.
During my research I did find a very interesting video that described some of the reasons people engage in BDSM financial activities like financial domination.
As the video explains, those that are engaged in the financial domination niche are not interested in a sexual relationship but looking for someone to “worship” and have someone else take charge, even at the detriment of their financial wellbeing.
Pornography, Sex, and Debt
We can’t be surprised that sexual activities can be a noticeable component of financial problems. I remember one person in particular that told me he travelled frequently for his job but when he did manage some time back home he spent about $400 each month renting porn. The porn was breaking the budget. How effective do you think it is to tell someone driven by emotional and/or chemical impulses to pack a lunch instead?
It is estimated that 2.5 billion emails a day are porn related.
About 25 percent of search engine traffic is related to porn.
It’s estimated that $2.5 billion is spent each year on internet pornography alone. Of that, one paper estimated, the annual cost per person was about $737 for people that pay for online porn.
Then it Comes to Prostitution
These big numbers don’t even include spending estimates for fetishes like financial domination, strippers, lap dances or prostitution.
But prostitution and debt have a dual relationship. Not only are some getting deeper in debt because of their attraction or addiction, but some are using prostitution to dig their way out of debt. They are also using stripping and escorting as financial tools as well.
A 2012 UK study found that “An increasing portion of students in the United Kingdom looking for a way to pay for their tuition are turning to prostitution, according to a new paper by a British medical student.”
“While the ethical implications of soon-to-be doctors working as prostitutes are unclear, “what is unacceptable is a student being forced into prostitution out of financial desperation,” Dixon said.
It’s not clear whether a similar problem exists in other countries. In 2008, a French student published an autobiography of her time spent as a prostitute to fund her education. And a French student union has claimed that as many as 40,000 students work as prostitutes, but this is difficult to prove, Dixon said.”
And what about those that become “Sugar Babies”, young women that want to find Sugar Daddies that will provide them with financial gifts? One Florida report stated 40 percent of women registered to be sugar babies were college students.
The gentleman in the video below spent $150,000 a year on his sugar baby attraction. The piece is called “Dating Off Debt.” So true.
Like it or not, there are enough financial fetishes and attractions to go around that are fueled by money, credit, and debt. For those of us in the debt relief world I’m sure it is a bigger problem than people share with us.
But it is what it is and pretending it doesn’t happen does not make it so. Being aware of the sexual components of debt will help both debt advisors and people to get real help.
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Please don’t include such entities as stripping and fin-dom in the category with prostitution in such a care free way. There are plenty of prostitutes who have never entered a strip club and plenty of strippers who have never prostituted or done illegal activities for money. You can’t simply categorize all strippers as prostitutes without including a disclaimer for those who do not.
I am not condemning or supporting either, just simply pointing out your generalization that strippers are prostitutes as a whole is incorrect. I was a stripper for 3 years in college and myself as well as most of my coworkers did not do anything the law did not allow.