Rebecca Hazelwood is a writer who puts off writing until she can stand it no longer. She loves poetry. She teaches college freshmen how to write and tries to survive graduate school. She takes a lot of gratuitous pictures of herself. Her past lives (which are never really in the past) include interests in photojournalism, French language and culture, and religious studies. She is native to Kentucky, but she has lived in Missouri and France. Now she lives in Georgia.

She also collaborates on Structure and Style, a new poetry blog.

There’s something profoundly human about wanting to be sexually valued, and it transcends genders. More than one young man has told me he envies my life, too. I suspect these young men are hinting at the same longing for affirmation as the young women who e-mail me. We all want to know that we matter, and being paid is one way of knowing we have value. It may be inelegant and often impersonal, but because money is quantifiable, its message is indisputable. Where do you go for reassurance if you doubt your physical and sexual desirability? Talk is cheap, so you take cash instead.

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