Sex blogger is former University of Sheffield student

November 16, 2009
By Duncan Robinson

The news that the sex-blogger and former call girl Belle de Jour was a PhD candidate at Sheffield University is quite surprising. The average PhD student is lucky if they’ve actually had sex at all – never mind having someone pay to do it with them.

Dr. Brooke 'Belle' Magnanti

Dr. Brooke 'Belle' Magnanti

Belle, or Dr. Brooke Magnanti as she is now known, was an almost penniless research student at the University of Sheffield when she went on the game. She had only the oral examination part of her PhD left to complete when she signed up to an escort agency. (There’s a joke in there somewhere.)

Less than half of all PhD students end up with a career in academia. For a while, Dr. Magnati was just another unemployed, over-qualified graduate. Prostitution was a stop-gap before she got a proper academic job. She could have done worse. Getting paid £300 an hour to have sex? It certainly beats bar work.

The Belle de Jour blog, books and its TV spin off – The Secret Diary of a Call Girl – was often criticised for glamorising the sex trade. Although, to be frank, having sex with strangers is probably more glamorous than three years studying in the Department of Forensic Pathology.

Even so, the image of an academic as a sex worker is an odd one. Prostitutes tend not to wear corduroy jackets and I’ve yet to meet a lecturer with an obvious liking for PVC. But, you never know. Being an academic is hardly the most financially rewarding career. As soon as your seminar finishes, your tutor might head off to a shady part of town and put on their red light.

Dr. Magnanti is hardly the first student to get involved in the sex trade. In a 2008 Steel Press sex survey of the university, seven respondents claimed to have worked as prostitutes. Some students have to strip, pose and shag to pay for their studies, depressingly.

Dr. Magnanti escaped from the sex industry unscathed. Now she just wants to continue her academic career. “The causes of cancer and the diagnosis rates. They’re my thing.” Now that’s sexy.

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