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| Marina Adshade teaches the class, The Economics of Sex and Love. (Danny Abriel Photo) |
Sex in exchange for money is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous business transactions in history. Rarely are there two more controversial subjects than money and sex; unless of course you want to throw politics and religion into the mix. Like it or not, sex and money go together like milk and cookies.
Two years ago, Dalhousie University economics professor Marina Adshade initiated the new class ECON 2214: Economics of Sex and Love. Around the same time, she also started a blog as a way to continue the discussion outside of the classroom and encourage students to become more engaged with the course material.
“People have the tendency to think economics is just about forecasting, inflation, unemployment rates and the like. There is so much more to our discipline,” explains Dr. Adshade. “That’s the great thing about the blog and the class. Much of economics can be applied to our everyday life. The blog is another tool for students to learn about the material.”
A few weeks ago, she entered a whole new playing field when her blog was picked up by Big Think. The website is a forum for connecting big thinkers and experts from a wide variety of fields. Big Think counts famous names like Steven Hawking, Wyclef Jean and Perez Hilton, amongst others, as contributors. Additionally, the best and the brightest from a wide variety of fields such as professionals, from poker players to athletes, astronauts, researchers, doctors and others, contribute both video and written content.
Big Think editor Paul Hoffman happened upon Dr. Adshade’s Economics of Sex and Love blog and was immediately intrigued. “She has such original arguments because she’s so on top of her research. It’s not like sitting with someone in a bar telling anecdotes about sex. She has research to back the information up.”
The blog, entitled “Dollars and Sex,” has made frequent appearances on the Big Think home page. Posts on topics such as sexy professors, the link between AIDS and gay marriage and promiscuity have already been soliciting comments from the online community.
“I never thought I’d be writing a blog that thousands of people would be reading every day,” remarks Adshade.