Pretty young women and older men of means — “sugar babies” and “sugar daddies” — are pairing up thanks to a US Web site that openly offers companionship for money, but balks at the word prostitution.
Seekingarrangement.com (SA) — which bills itself as the “premier sugar daddy dating site” — does not beat around the bush.
“We are a matchmaking Web site for wealthy benefactors, and attractive guys and gals,” its front page says.
It is one of dozens of Internet sites that centers around the age-old idea of a sugar daddy — an older man who pays to maintain the lifestyle of a younger, beautiful companion.
On SA, the idea is simple — a man who is “rich and successful ... single or married” sets up an online profile that reveals the amount in his bank accounts and the monthly allowance he can provide to a willing woman.
Amounts range from at least US$1,000 to more than US$20,000.
“You have no time for games. You are looking to mentor or spoil someone special,” the site says.
Men pay US$50 a month for an account, plus US$1,000 a year for the site to certify his wealth.
For the woman, who is ideally “attractive, ambitious and young,” membership is free.
“You seek a generous benefactor to pamper, mentor and take care of you, perhaps to help you financially?” the site asks.
The couple will meet, dine, travel together — and maybe more.
“If it was just money and sex, people would go to an escort Web site,” SA founder Brandon Wade said. “People meet, they negotiate and feel the chemistry, and if two people don’t like each other, then nothing happens.”
The 41-year-old Wade, who graduated from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said people are often overly judgmental of these types of relationships.
“The point is that there’s nothing wrong with dating somebody who is rich and who is willing to spend money on you in a relationship, and that’s what it is about,” he said.
On the Web site’s blog, “BellaSavantNYC” describes herself as an an educated career woman and says that helps her attract even more men.
“For me, having a sugar adds enjoyment and companionship without any of the general relationship issues. I have been in arrangements where it was platonic as well and it was just as fulfilling,” she writes.
Of course, money is at the heart of SA, an idea the Web site reinforces with its logo, which is a red heart with a $ symbol in the middle. And of course, there are “sugar mommies” too, dating younger men.
Ronald Weitzer, a sociology professor at George Washington University and author of several studies on the sex industry, said under US law, there must be talk of money for sex from the start of the process to constitute prostitution.
In the case of SA, he said, the specific amount is not asked for right away.
“Prostitution is normally a direct exchange of some kind of material resources for sexual services,” Weitzer said.
“It’s considered a very direct transaction, but it gets complicated when you start looking at a more long-term relationship between the person who is paying and the person who is receiving,” he said, calling SA’s service “borderline.”
He said that most of the women on the site would not define themselves as prostitutes.
“But if you would ask them: ‘Are you basically exchanging sex and romance for economic benefit?’ they would have to say yes. Basically, that would be a definition of prostitution,” he said.
Wade said 35 percent of the sugar babies who use his site are students who often use the money to pay for their studies, though that number cannot be independently verified.
So are sugar daddies truly searching for romance or fixed-rate love?
“I don’t know what they are looking for,” Weitzer said. “Clearly, what we do know is that they have resources. They are not the type of person who would go out on the street, looking for a prostitute — they are lawyers, corporate people, bankers.”
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was