Pragmatism would appear to be a quality Natalie Dylan has in spades.  Ms. Dylan, a 22-year old San Diego woman, is auctioning off her virginity with the assistance of a Nevada brothel.  She plans to put herself through graduate school.  She holds an undergraduate degree in Women's Studies, and plans to pursue graduate work in Marriage and Family therapy. 

Am I the only one that see immense irony in that?  

Ms. Dylan has registered surprise at the level of interest her offer has generated.  She muses that virginity isn't that highly prized any longer, so why the big to-do?  After all, her older sister was able to finance her studies by working for just a few weeks in one of Nevada's brothels.  Ms. Dylan is simply going about the same business from a different angle - one that promises to earn her considerably more than her older sister made.  Now that public interest is accelerating, there are potential movie offers coming in to Ms. Dylan, who has indicated that if she can make at least $1 million dollars through movie and/or book contracts, she wouldn't necessarily feel compelled to go through with the sex.

But Ms. Dylan apparently has some flawed conceptions, regardless of what she was taught in her Women's Studies.  Apparently, virginity does have a rather high value attached to it.  And virginity that could also garner some publicity for the 'lucky' bidder might seem to be additionally enticing.  If people - including Ms. Dylan - value virginity so highly, should we be surprised at this outbreak of bidding fervor?

It's funny to watch the press attempting to report on this.  After all, for many people this raises some pretty itchy ethical considerations.  Prostitution, after all, is illegal outside of specific counties in Nevada.  The practice of selling sex for money - while ancient no doubt - is also one that has been consistently repudiated by our culture as, at the very least, inappropriate.  It has been theoretically glamorized and glorified in movies such as Pretty Woman, but really, what that movie ultimately glamorized and glorified was true love - and the monogamous behavior associated with it.  As outdated and old fashioned as certain academic and feminist thinkers may wish to dub it, virginity and monogamous behavior are still culturally understood to be the ideal.  It's just that people are better rationalizing to themselves the fact that they don't choose to live up to it.

I wonder if Ms. Dylan would be equally pragmatic about a counter-offer - a multi-million dollar offer for her to remain a virgin until marriage?  Virginity is something that Ms. Dylan apparently places some value on herself, else she most likely would have made different choices by this point in her life.  The question for her - and for us - is whether or not the value of virginity can compete with cold, hard cash.  

Capitalism would seem to say no, it can't - and shouldn't.  I wonder how many of her former - and future - professors would agree with her actions?  I wonder how many graduate schools would happily accept a woman who has pushed the envelope - if not outright violated - some of our most vigorous cultural standards?  How comfortable would you be receiving marriage 'therapy' from a woman who had sold her body to go to school?  Is she going to insist that the winner of the auction not be married?  Ms. Dylan appears to be playing things very close to the chest as far as her selection criteria.  

Would you attempt to talk Ms. Dylan out of this course of action?  Or is she a hero for feminists everywhere?