‘I was threatened with expulsion’: Why sex workers at university fear speaking out Many students are also sex workers, and this is a fact that universities need to address in their policies

Gauging the exact number of students who are in sex work is almost impossible. As long as sex work remains stigmatised and criminalised, students, and indeed the sex work community at large, will be fearful to disclose the truth.

In 2015, the Student Sex Work Project at Swansea University surveyed 6,773 students and found five per cent had engaged in sex work and a further one in five students had considered it – although the real number of students in sex work is likely to be far higher. But, even if we could gather precise numbers, statistics can only tell us so much. Rather than asking how many students are in sex work, we should be asking what it’s like for those who are.

Sex work is a broad umbrella term for all sexual services. Escorting, web-camming, stripping, sugaring, selling nudes on social media, or working as a sex phone line operator are just a handful of different types of sex work. As the law stands in the UK, it is not illegal to sell sex, but the stigma surrounding it means few feel they can be open about it.

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Living in fear they will be found out

i spoke to several students who have supported their studies through sex work for this article. Some were very open with lecturers and fellow students about being sex workers and others have gone to considerable lengths to keep it private.

Whatever their decision, it came at a cost. Those who are ‘out’ regularly experience stigma and feel they are being judged by those in powerful positions, and those who hid their sex work live in a state of severe anxiety they will be found out and punished.

Read more Sex work was my only choice while bringing up my disabled daughter

This concern is not without foundation. The same research carried out at Swansea University found some university staff they interviewed were concerned students in sex work affected the “reputation of the university and professionalism”. Given that almost all UK universities have student codes of conduct which makes behaviour that brings that institution into ‘disrepute’ a disciplinary offence, it is hardly surprising many students in sex work do not feel they can be open about it.

Kicked off their courses

Marcus* is a 32-year-old mature student studying media at a university in the Midlands. Before starting his degree, Marcus had been very open about being an escort. “I was out for years, I mean OUT. Even at dinner parties, ‘what do you do for a living?’ ‘I’m a sex worker!’” But this changed as soon as he was offered a place on an undergraduate degree. “I knew going to university I would have to go back in again. I had heard from friends and colleagues in the industry who not only had bad experiences being outed at uni but had been kicked off their courses for bringing the university into disrepute.”

‘One of the lecturers was talking about projects we could research, and she said someone had done a project on students who sex work, and she laughed. I was dying to ask, why are you laughing?’ – Marcus

Marcus went as far as buying a second phone to use at university, pixelating all the images on his website and starting sex work under an alias, something he had never done before. He described sitting in the initial interview for the course fearing someone on the panel would have discovered his secret and would ask him to leave. “At first, I thought I had overreacted and thought maybe I could tell them. But then one of the lecturers was talking about projects we could research, and she said someone had done a project on students who sex work, and she laughed. I was dying to ask, why are you laughing? And I thought no, I can’t.”

I am hiding such an important part of my life

The fear his sex worker identity will be discovered means Marcus’s university experience is not only an anxious one, but lonely too. “There is a degree of isolation. There is a part of me that’s not there. I am hiding such an important part of my life. I feel stigmatised even though they haven’t done anything. The stigma and the stereotype of sex work is that people are forced into it. But, what people don’t realise is that choice sex workers like me not only enjoy the job, but are very, very proud of working in that industry – and I can’t share that.”

Nell* is 23 and has worked as a stripper for several years. She now researches sex work as part of a postgraduate degree at a university in Yorkshire. “I am here because I wanted to write about my job, and my job is dancing naked!”, she explained, laughing. While Nell doesn’t hide what she does from the university, she is guarded about who she discloses to. “I kind of let them believe it, but most people are way too afraid to ask. Some people may assume, but it’s not something they know. It’s not written down in black and white anywhere.”

‘A lot of clients are really shocked when I tell them I want to be a stripper after I graduate’ – Nell

The image of the student stripping her way through university is a powerful and pervasive stereotype, and it’s one Nell encounters daily. “People expect strippers to be students, but they don’t expect a student to be a stripper.” Even Nell’s clients are surprised she wants to continue dancing after she’s graduated. “A lot of clients are really shocked when I tell them I want to be a stripper after I graduate. I really like studying. I also see how shit the pay is. There is no way I would give up stripping in the next two years. I really like my job. They don’t understand that I can be smart and educated and still want to do that.”

Hayley* is a 42-year-old PhD researcher at a London university and has been a sex worker throughout most of her adult life. “I am quite unusual because A, I was a street sex worker, and I have a lot of convictions, and B, I worked right across the industry – escort agencies, massage parlours, madams, camming, everything.”

Hayley signed up to a university access course to avoid a jail sentence and had fully intended to quit when her court case was over. But, much to her surprise, Hayley found she “absolutely loved it”. “About halfway through, I thought I might do a degree and I went to a university I liked, and I was wearing a tag, and this lecturer interviewed me, and we spoke for about an hour and a half. They ended up gave me an unconditional place. The first year, I was still an active drug addict, the second year I got clean and the university was really supportive of that.

“But, all that time, I never mentioned I was an ex worker. I mentioned the fact that I had been in prison, I mentioned the fact I was an addict, but I never mentioned the fact I had been a sex worker. I knew they would judge me.”

‘I think there is an underlying prejudice against sex workers, especially if you are unapologetic for it’ – Hayley

Hayley decided to study the sex industry for her PhD and fully disclosed her history in the methodology and to her supervisors. Despite her openness, her sex worker past has never been discussed. “No one has ever said anything to me about it. But I sense it. There are a few things [where] I think because of my history, I’ve been treated differently. I think it’s a snobbery about where I have come from. That I don’t fit the ‘victim’. I’ve been victimised, but I am not a victim. I think there is an underlying prejudice against sex workers, especially if you are unapologetic for it. I don’t see sex work as particularly liberating. I see it as work – you’re working.”

Although telling her supervisors about working in the sex industry has relieved the fear she would face disciplinary action, Hayley found some lecturers became noticeably uncomfortable around her and talked down to her. “I’ve experienced underlying stigma. I know its there.”

I asked everyone I interviewed for this piece what universities could do to better support students in sex work. Hayley was unequivocal in her response: “It’s nothing to do with the universities. The last thing we need is more paternalism. The university is there to take my money and teach what I need to get further up the job ladder. They are not there to take a stand or to help me in that way.”

Nell too felt it wasn’t the place of universities to offer any kind of ‘help’ to students in sex work. “I would like to see more student groups, like SWARM, but for universities and self-organised – nothing from the university itself. I don’t want another student who is super feminist to be like ‘I have this great support network for you, I made it’. I really don’t want that.”

Staff have no guidance

But, things do need to change in universities in order to create safe spaces for all students. The change required is not top-down rescue missions to save students from sex work, but clear university policies that state a student will not be expelled from their course for being, or having been, a sex worker.

Very few universities have any kind of policy specific to students in sex work, which means disciplinary action remains a possibility. Even without the threat of expulsion, without a clear policy in place, staff have no guidance. Speaking to SWARM, one student who was outed at university said: “[when] university staff found out, I was met with threats of expulsion from my course and no offer of support.”

Marcus wanted to see “education for lecturers and the wellbeing teams” on how to offer student sex workers “unconditional, non-judgemental support”. University staff do require training in order to do this. The 2015 research on students in sex work found that there were “widespread inaccurate perceptions regarding the legality of various kinds of sex work”.

Making uni a safe, non-judgemental space

Since that research was published, the National Union of Students (NUS) has issued a briefing for students and student unions on how they can better support student sex workers. In February, the University and College Union (UCU) published a new policy on supporting students in sex work. The UCU resolved to “work with the NUS and any other relevant group to highlight the impact cuts and fees have in trapping workers in the sex industry” and “to support self-organised sex workers in their call for decriminalisation of sex work to allow collective working and improved safety for sex workers”.

Many students are also sex workers, and this is a fact universities need to address in their policies. Staff need training on how best to support students in sex work should they make the choice to disclose this to them. Students in sex work do need protection, but not from sex work itself – they need protection at an institutional level to guarantee they will not face disciplinary procedure simply for being sex workers, that university staff and fellow students cannot and will not discriminate against them, and the assurance that their university is a safe, non-judgemental and supportive space.

*All names have been changed in this article