A ‘dating’ website which connects young women with wealthy men is attracting thousands of Australian university students, who use the ‘sugar baby and sugar daddy’ arrangement to fund their university studies.
The website, Seeking Arrangement, directly targets university students, offering “relief” to those with large uni debts.
Australia has one of the fastest growing Sugar Baby communities in the world. So far, 125,000 Australian university students have signed up.
“Say goodbye to college debt and hello to a higher class education,” the Seeking Arrangement website promises.
“Bills never get in the way for College Sugar Babies. The value of a degree cannot be underestimated. It opens the door to better jobs, better salaries and more opportunities in general. It is easier than ever for students to connect with Sugar Daddies…” the website says.
With the cost of attending unversity in Australia averaging close to $30,000, becoming a Sugar Baby seems a viable financial option to some students.
The site’s “alternative dating arrangement” sees young women paid (an average monthly allowance of $2800) for spending time with a Sugar Daddy or multiple Daddies.
The Sugar Daddies are seen as “sponsors” who help fund the lifestyle and education of the Sugar Babies.
Basically, Sugar Babies begin a relationship (emotional and physical, for the most part) with a (mostly older) partner, for which they are given money and gifts.
The growth of the ‘Sugar Bowl’ community in Australia has been massive, tripling in the last four years.
How easy is it to become a ‘Sugar baby’?
“Join today and get your education paid for by a generous sponsor,” SeekingArrangement promises.
It sounds like an enticing proposition for any young person worried about money.
I signed up myself to understand the process.
With a simple click of a button, you’re asked if you’re a man or a woman, if you’re a Sugar Baby, Sugar Daddy or a Sugar Momma, what your sexual preference is and then you enter your email address.
The next steps see you creating a profile with personal information and stipulating further the kind of ‘relationship arrangement’ you’d like.
No one under 18 is able to join the site, although you’re given the option to ‘skip for now’ your birth date when you create your profile. When we entered a birth date that indicated we were under 18, we were alerted. We simply changed the birth year and were able to carry on creating a profile.
The website shows many forums and blog posts where members can communicate and support one another.
Featured posts on the Sugar Baby blog section include titles like “subtle cosmetic procedures to ask Daddy for” and “How to host the perfect evening with Daddy”.
There are also a lot of posts defending the Sugar Baby concept, including sub-heads like “Sugar Babies are not Gold Diggers” and “Sugar Babies are not sex workers.”
Users on the site articulate that “Sugar Babies don’t sell services” and are therefore not sex workers and not exploited, rather they are empowered, “switched-on women who know their worth and what they deserve”.
While sex is not a an official advertised aspect of the Sugar Baby lifestyle, it happens and young women thinking about signing up have to understand that.
I’m Sugar Babying my way through university
In an article published on Elle Australia one woman known only as “Eva” shared her experience as a Sugar Baby.
“I like to think of it as a normal dating relationship but compressed and simplified,” she said.
“If I am studying, working (and I do work), doing prac and volunteering, and my partner is working 60 to 80 hours a week in high stress situations, when you do meet up—say you get a day or six hours together at the end of the day or the middle of the week – you go out for dinner or for lunch and aquariums and things like that.
“Of course there’s curiosity, but there’s no harsh, un-based criticism. My friends see it as going on dates with guys from Tinder, really what’s the difference?
“If I’m dating them then I’m obviously comfortable being intimate with them,” she explained.
The massive growth of the sugar babe community means it’s important parents talk to their teenagers about what being a Sugar Baby means.
The repercussions could stay with a Sugar Baby for years to come.
