Sugar dating, also called sugaring,^[1] is a pseudo-romantic relationship between an older, wealthy person and a younger person.^[2] Payment can be received by way of money, gifts like designer goods, jewellery, support or other material benefits in exchange for sex, companionship or a dating-like relationship.^[3][4] The person who receives the gifts is called a sugar baby (or in the case of men, traditionally a gigolo), while their paying partner is called a sugar daddy or sugar momma (also spelled sugar mama).^[5]

Sugar dating is especially popular in the online dating community due to the easy access to specific niches and desires.^[6] The term was coined by Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, who married Adolph B. Spreckels, the heir to a sugar fortune, and called him "sugar daddy".^[7]

Prevalence

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, as well as 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 for 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 $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 are related to traditional gender roles, sociosexual orientation, parasite stress theory, economic inequality, individualism, and personality traits like the Dark Triad.^[13]

Legality and comparison to sex work

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,^[17] was arrested and their website URL blocked by Malaysian ISP's.^[18]

Sugaring has been called the modern-day counterpart of the courtesan,^[19][20] "a prostitute, especially one with wealthy or upper-class clients."