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Natalie Dylan, 22, claims her offer of a one-night stand has persuaded 10,000 men to bid for sex with her.Miss Dylan should consider switching her major to economics or marketing. She has, at least, established an argument useful in abstinence education, namely that innocence has value, the supply being finite and the demand . . . well, not infinite perhaps, but substantially greater than the supply.
Last September, when her auction came to light, she had received bids up to £162,000 ($243,000) but since then interest in her has rocketed.
The student who has a degree in Women's Studies insisted she was not demeaning herself.
Miss Dylan, from San Diego, California, USA, said she was persuaded to offer herself to the highest bidder after her sister Avia, 23, paid for her own degree after working as a prostitute for three weeks.
She said she had had a lot of attention from a wide range of men, including "weirdos", "those who get really graphically sexual about what they want to do to me" and "lots of polite requests from rich businessmen".
Miss Dylan said she did not think it was particularly significant to be willing to sell your virginity and insisted that she was happy to undergo medical tests for any doubters.
All right, feminists: Attack!
UPDATE: Not a feminist, and not an attack, but Alan Colmes:
And she wants to be clear on one thing: This is not about having a relationship. It’s a one night stand, and that’s it. Is one roll in the hay really worth millions of dollars?
Poor Alan -- still can't get past that obsolete Labor Theory of Value, can he? Now that he's retired from TV, perhaps he will have time to read Mises, Hayek and Friedman.
UPDATE II: Not a feminist, but an attack on her "peculiar mercenary streak" from Paul Cella:
One could note that only in the modern age could someone claim that it is “shocking” for men to prize purity and chastity, which are exemplified above all in virginity. One might observe that the whole impetus for her offer was a keen insight into how highly prized purity still is, even refracted through a distorting lens of degradation.
One could and one might, but someone will still collect $3.7 million, eh? (Notes for planned essay: "Wheres my bailout?" Pun on "whole impetus"?)
RELATED: 'Science' and teen sex
UPDATE III: I keep watching Memeorandum, waiting for Feministing or some other feminist site to jump on Miss Dylan. The apparent indifference is beginning to seem suspicious. Has the sisterhood suddenly converted en masse to free-market economics? Is the auctioning of sex viewed as some sort of "liberation"? (Bob Dole: "Where's the outrage?") Meanwhile, we have to make do with the un-outraged liberal Ron Chusid:
She does find it surprising that men will pay so much. . . . What she might not realize is that the majority of bids are being placed under assumed names by Eliot Spitzer.
Rimshot!
UPDATE IV: James Joyner points out that Natalie's offer was reported four months ago at Digital Alchemy -- and who says bloggers don't do reporting?UPDATE V: Linked by Jules Crittenden, Fausta Wertz and by The Week.UPDATE VI: Still no feminist outrage, but at long last Ace of Spades has taken notice.
UPDATE VII: My new column about Natalie.
First off, can she prove that she's a virgin? If so, does the 3.7 million give you around the world, half and half, or just in and out?
ReplyDeleteThe problem is your conflation and/or reduction of "value" and "commodity value." The latter is determined by the market alone and thus identical to "price." The former is a moral question that presupposes a moral framework prior to commodification. Which is why no Christian can be a Randroid / principled-all-the-way-down libertarian.
ReplyDeleteCella's entire point is that the case and the disproportion of this cost versus what you can get on Craigs List proves by reductio ad absurdum that value =/= price always and necessarily.
Hmm. I don't think this is an example of the value of virginity. It's more an example of the lengths to which people will go to undermine it.
ReplyDeleteThink of how much money she could make if she slept with all 10,000 men. And speaking of Spitzer, Dylan does somewhat resemble the girl he frequented.
ReplyDeleteShe's a whore. Not even an attractive one, just a common whore.
ReplyDeleteHow sad.
And you wonder why there are 2Billion+ people in the world hoping, praying, & meditating for the destruction of the USA?
ReplyDeleteOne only has to observe the out-of-control behavior of Modern Western Women to understand why.
Wow, after seeing her pic on the Telegraph site, she'd have to pay me, virgin or no.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that too much should be read into this, although Teresa Tomeo was pretty breathless about it this morning. It's yet another foray into the tawdry decadence of our culture. Nevertheless, 3.7 million is a pretty dear price.....as Mr. McCain said, it appears that virginity does have quite a value. While I wouldn't use this as an object lesson of the value of purity with my daughters, it's another one of those instances where purile extravagance unintentionally reveals a deeper truth, that being that many men would rather their partners not be innocent.
Just a point of clarification... innocence does not have value for these people. It is the taking of innocence that thrills them. They are animals and she is prey.
ReplyDeleteal sends
Umm - I don't see the issue, here.
ReplyDeleteI mean, the "traditional" wife stands up in her (virgin white) wedding gown, "given" with suitable financial arrangements to the groom - where she is expected to serve and obey for life, in return for room and board, whatever other assets she manages to acquire, and what care can be afforded.
I have known women to marry for a few years, to establish an adequate "child support" or "alimony" or property settlement - so they can divorce and live their own lives. I haven't heard one called a whore. This lady is just short-circuiting much of the married thing.