The second item of the day is 5’2”, petite in size and wears a low-cut Hollister dress that clings to the contours of her body. The overpowering scent of her fruity Bath and Body Works spray trails behind her, as she’s steered on stage and the light catches off her braces as she flashes an alluring smile to the potential buyers below. Immediately, a young man throws up his hand with five dollars while another frantically races to outbid him with seven. As a stream of offers scramble in, a clamor arouses within the crowd until the deep droll of the auctioneer’s voice booms over the microphone with the final sale: “Sold for $56.”
Believe it or not, this is actually our school’s annual fundraiser, the Bachelor and Bachelorette Auction. Yet while watching freshmen girls getting auctioned off to a crowd of hormonal, adolescent boys, I can’t help but think of an amateur prostitution auction instead of a regular school event. Really, the whole idea behind a human auction is in poor taste.
You don’t need to be Django to be offended by the act of selling a human being. And though these Bachelor and Bachelorette Auctions are a far cry from the horrors of slavery, the two are linked by the practice of selling humans as items which is just as, if not more, offensive as the slur-slinging Tarantino film itself. If we are taught that people exist as individuals and not just as pieces of meat, why sink ourselves to such levels with this fundraiser?
Not only is it embarrassing to be sold on stage, but the Bachelor and Bachelorette auction may also affect participants emotionally through demeaning their self-worth. By putting a price on your value as a person, the auction slaps a shocking contradiction to your mother’s reassurances that you’re priceless, when it turns out you’re only worth 12 bucks, and nothing more.
People are usually flattered into participating after being nominated to be in the auction. Still, though many may have volunteered to be auctioned off at the event, nobody really expects to end up with a low price. People sign up, knowing full well the risk of being sold at a low amount or not being sold at all, and they are sincerely crestfallen as their settled price lands under $10. Injured feelings are usually an unfortunate casualty of the fundraiser, especially if ASBL doesn’t bail the participants out with pity bids.
It gets even worse when the auction turns into a huge popularity contest, weighing the amount of money you earn against that of other participants. Ultimately, it reestablishes the social hierarchy within the student body. Those who sell for higher prices are often already in the “in” crowd, while the rest who are sold for less remain invisible and unnoticed. What essentially starts as a simple fundraiser transforms into something much deeper, drawing the line between who’s popular and who’s not.
Though it seems that the downsides of the Bachelor and Bachelorette Auction only target the person being bought, the grass isn’t always greener on the buyers’ side.
With participants getting sold for tens, even hundreds of dollars, it’s unfair for people to spend so much money bidding for a lunch date when they have absolutely no control over where the date will be held or what they are going to eat. If somebody’s paying well over $100 dollars for a single date, there might as well be some good food involved.
Needless to say, however harmless a lunch with your purchased “date-for-a-day” may seem, you may just be bidding more than what it’s worth.