As a result, college students struggle to make ends meet while pursuing an education to pay off those debts later. This phenomenon is known as sugar dating, a mutually beneficial relationship between a sugar daddy— a wealthy older male interested in providing a financial resource for his partner— and a sugar baby— younger women interested in this type of relationship. Sugar dating is a transactional dating practice typically characterized by an older, wealthier person and a younger person in need of financial assistance in a mutually beneficial relationship.
Sugar dating is posed as a safe, alternative balance of school and working one or multiple part-time jobs. However, the danger of situations as such is that they often lead to a variety of forms of manipulation and sexual exploitation. Sugar dating can involve scenarios of harassment, sexual assault, and the manipulation of financial arrangements to coerce unwanted sexual action— also known as rape.
Although there is little research on the topic, sugar dating has become a cultural phenomenon that has grown throughout the past decade. The relationship between an older man the sugar daddy and a younger woman the sugar baby typically proceeds differently than relationships between sugar mommas and their male sugar babies.
The critical difference is in regards to intercourse. Male sugar babies typically describe their interactions with sugar mommas as regular relationships where the partner happens to be a little bit older and have a higher socioeconomic status.
Sugar dating almost exclusively originates through online means of communication. They also include paid advertisements, which can be both traditional and digital. Examples of both forms of communication include:. One reason why sugar dating has become so popular online is that it is easier to meet a large variety of individuals online as opposed to in person.
