“Escorts can’t say no”: Delineating Sugar Dating from Sex Work in the Sugar Bowl

• In Event: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in Justice-Involved Populations

Abstract

While sugar dating is often categorized as sex work, sugar dating is viewed by those in the community (or “sugar bowl”) as something entirely different: Sugar dating is defined as a “mutually beneficial” arrangement between a baby and a daddy/mommy in which money is exchanged for intimacy. Like sex work, sugaring is explicitly transactional, involving an allowance between the baby and their daddy/mommy. This study includes 47 qualitative interviews with members of the sugar bowl recruited through paid advertisements on the “Secrets of a Sugar Daddy” podcast. The sample includes 28 sugar daddies, 18 babies and one mamma. The sample is predominantly white (n=32) and straight (n=29), with a large portion divorced or separated (n=19). This study finds that sugar babies and daddies distinguish sugar dating from sex work to distance themselves from being accused of paying / being paid for sex (and thereby, charged with soliciting sex or prostitution). Participants distinguish sugar dating from sex work by emphasizing the emotional long-term connections of these arrangements, distinct from--in their view--the one-time payment or sexual experience of sex work. By drawing these distinctions, participants devalue sex work to legitimize sugar dating as an “alternative” form of dating.

Author

• Maria N. Scaptura, University of Arkansas