When you hear the term 'sugar daddy', you probably think of a silver fox in his 60s who drives a Mercedes, calls you "baby doll" and parades his year-old 'sugar baby' around with her new pair of boobs and a designer handbag. You may also assume there's a transaction of sexual favours in return for these luxuries. I spoke to a year-old sugar baby from Western Sydney named Sarah, and discovered the surprising truth about sites like Seeking Arrangement : some people are, allegedly, looking for love.
Sarah's story began in when she was 24 and had just ended a long-term relationship. She was sick of emotionally immature men her own age, and yearned to have a stable relationship where she was looked after, so she joined a sugar daddy dating site. Seeking Arrangement is a platform where something-year-old women can look for older or merely richer men. Two parties figure an arrangement that suits both of them and, just like any other dating app, they meet for a date.
Sarah, who works in property management, described signing up as "absolutely terrifying. He was happy to help her pay for university fees, he wasn't demanding about how much she needed to spend time with him, he was happy to pay for dinners and he wasn't looking to offer an 'allowance' in return for a 'reward. Soon after Sarah and Steve began dating, they were jetting off on overseas trips, including one to New Zealand, where Steve works half of the time.
The couple have now been together for more than a year and a half. Sarah says she's in love with Steve, although her friends and family are none the wiser. Her story warmed my heart and sparked a curiosity⦠but also rang alarm bells in my mind that screamed "BULLS I just couldn't believe a site where older rich men seek hook-ups with hot somethings who want money for free could possibly serve as a civilised match-making community. So, I put on my investigative journalist pants, jumped down the rabbit hole and signed up as a sugar baby myself.
While I have no judgment of women who have a sugar daddy β I think it takes a bad a woman to use a man for his money, just as he is using her to fulfil a fantasy β for some reason it felt a little shameful signing up. Once I was approved, a pool of sleaze-sprinkled shame oozed out of my phone screen. Some people had profile pictures, some didn't. Some men were over 65, while some were only There was a mixture of men who sounded like they were just lonely and wanted someone to spoil, and others who were using it as their personal sex work service.
