"It's its Own Thing": A Typology of Interpersonal Sugar Relationship Scripts

• In Event: 1444 - Emerging Topics in Deviance and Social Control

Abstract

While academics have focused on transactional sex in sub-Saharan Africa and compensated dating in East and Southeast Asia, sugar relationships in the United States have largely been ignored. The few studies that address these arrangements in United States often frame them as a form of prostitution. Drawing from 48 in-depth interviews with women in the United States who have been in sugar relationships, I explore the structure of these arrangements and assess the extent to which they are a form of prostitution. Overall, I found that, while there is a dominant, subcultural relationship script that serves as a blueprint for sugar arrangements, they are not homogenous. Instead, they take a variety of forms when enacted on an interpersonal level. Specifically, I identified seven types of sugar relationships, only one of which can be considered prostitution. These included sugar dating, sugar friendships, sugar friendships with benefits, compensated dating, compensated companionship, pragmatic love, and sugar prostitution.

Author

• Maren Taylor Scull, University of Colorado Denver