In 2019, 390 Carleton University students registered for SeekingArrangement, a dating service that connects sugar daddies and sugar babies, the company reported earlier this month.
Sugaring, is when “a ‘sugar baby’ offers some form of companionship and intimacy to a ‘sugar daddy,’ or less frequently, ‘sugar mommy,’ in exchange for some form of financial compensation,” former Carleton student Sarah Daly wrote in her masters’ thesis.
Carleton ranked 12th among Canadian universities, which in total saw a 44 per cent increase in registered sugar babies, according to SeekingArrangement. The University of Toronto is first on the list, with 1,158 members; the University of Ottawa ranked ninth with 414 members.
In total, there are over 340,000 sugar baby students in Canada.
“Tuition is going up, jobs are scarce,” said Carleton associate professor Ummni Khan, who supervised Daly’s thesis and researches topics including sex work. “It’s an excellent way to fund your university.”
“It makes sense that students are finding these elevated relationships beneficial,” a SeekingArrangement press release stated. “The opportunities for mentorship and an expanded network are also enticing.”
Sugaring has grown in popularity among students, primarily because the increasing financial stress of tuition and housing, but also because of de-stigmatization from even 20 years ago and the opportunity for more honesty in relationships.
Wealth and money, and beauty and youth, become mutually-recognized desires in a relationship. “What SeekingArrangement does is it makes it much more explicit,” Khan explained.
The line between sugaring and sex work is blurry. Many sugar babies don’t offer intimate services, but the distinction between the two sometimes comes down to perspective.
“It depends on what the sugar baby is doing,” said Khan. “The framing and intentionality can be different.”
What sets sugaring apart is the intention of networking, actually dating and falling in love.
The overlap leads to many of the same stigmas: slut shaming, or the idea that sugar babies don’t have self respect, are immoral or are prone to STIs. Some brands of feminism frown on sugaring as a form of victimization that sugar babies can be unaware of.
“There’s a risk, but I don’t think it’s more so than most other jobs,” said Khan. Other jobs also hold the potential for exploitation and risk, as does sugaring.
For its part, SeekingArrangement prohibits the use of its service for prostitution or the solicitation of escorts or prostitutes. It also provides tips for dating safely.
Featured graphic by Paloma Callo.
