Student prostitution in the age of new communications technologies 192 pages ISBN: 978-2-35341-029-3 Summary According to a recent study conducted by a student union on the new forms of prostitution, ‘in France, as of today, 40.000 students are prostituting themselves’. This phenomenon is mainly linked with the increasing cost and precariousness of student life. Carried out in the years 2006-2007 and highlighted by real testimonies, the study is a lifelike description of an utterly new form of prostitution — inconspicuous, subterranean, it is essentially practised from the Internet by young women who call themselves ‘escort girls’. This book provides a double understanding of the question: on the one hand, if student prostitution firstly derives from problematic financial situations and the parents’ inability to provide a sufficient help, it can also be a means of emancipation from a restrained sexuality or a life too vapid, and a ‘revenge’ on the Prince Charming myth. On the other hand, this form of prostitution distinguishes itself from so-called ‘traditional’ practices in that clients are carefully selected, an atmosphere of ‘complicity’ is created, a socialisation with different generations and social classes takes place, etc. For students, it remains that such a ‘choice’ primarily relies on a series of social and symbolic ruptures linked to the power of money, to the desire for tangible trappings of success, and to domination – both masculine and socio-economic. Eva Clouet is a Master 2 student in Sociology (‘Genders and Social Politics’) at the Toulouse II University (Le Mirail). Feuilleter
