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Sugar dating, also called sugaring,[1] is a quasiromantic or pseudoromantic relationship wherein a financially successful person dates a less financially successful person. Typically, the financially successful person is older and wealthy, while the other person is typically younger, attractive, and interested in improving their quality of life.[2] Sugaring can be classified as a compensatory relationship whereby the recipient obtains gifts such as jewelry, luxury goods, leisure outings, vacations, fine dining, financial support, or mentorship, meanwhile offering social benefits such as companionship, affection, dating or intimacy.[3][4][5]
The gift recipient is called a sugar baby, and male sugar babies are referred to as gigolos. The providing partner is called a sugar daddy or sugar mommy.[6] Sugar dating is especially popular in the online dating community due to the easy access to specific niches and desires.[7]
The phenomenon of powerful men using their money to attract women is old. At the end of the 19th century in the United States, in a phenomenon known as treating, women with low-paying jobs relied upon men to provide them with money in exchange for being an escort.[8]
With the rising costs in tuition, cuts to scholarships and bursaries, and the increasing pressures of student debt, sugar dating has become prevalent among students.[9] Research suggests that there is a growing phenomenon of female university students working in the sex industry to pay for their post-secondary education.[10] Due to the nature and stigmatization of sex work in the marginalized and hidden population, there is limited information on the percentage of students participating in these types of relationships.[11] Those that decide to participate in sugar often use various websites to come in contact with these people. Membership on one site in 2016 was US$70 per month for sugar daddies or mommies, but free for sugar babies.[12]
Attitudes towards sugar relationships are shaped by economic conditions, societal norms, psychological traits, and cultural values. Research has found openness to these arrangements is related to traditional gender roles, sociosexual orientation, parasite-stress theory, economic inequality, individualism, and personality traits like the Dark Triad.[13]
There is debate about whether this practice can be considered sex work; i.e., purchase of intimate attention, sexual or otherwise.[14] In an article from Deutsche Welle, the CEO of SeekingArrangement denied that the site played host to prostitutes and their customers, saying that "escorts and their clients are never welcome on our sites".[15]
In Malaysia, sugar dating is illegal,[16] to the point where the CEO of Malaysian sugar dating company Sugarbook was arrested[17] and their website blocked by Malaysian Internet service providers.[18]
Sugaring has been called the modern-day counterpart of the courtesan,[19][20] "a prostitute, especially one with wealthy or upper-class clients."
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