Mapping sugar dating in Sweden

• Since the launch of the first sugar dating site in Sweden in 2017, sugar dating has recurred as a hot topic in media and public debate. Although, as this paper will address, the very definition of sugar dating is contested, it is generally comprised of an arrangement between a ‘sugar babe’ and a ‘sugar daddy’ (or sometimes ‘mama’), where dating and/or sex is compensated for by the daddy in the form of money and/or other gifts. The aim of this paper is to map the practices of sugar dating in a Swedish context, answering two broad questions:What are the practices of sugar dating?Who are the sugar daters?The paper is based on qualitative and quantitative data from an ongoing Forte-funded research project on sugar dating. The bulk of the material was gathered in 2019 and consists of three sets of empirical data: semi-structured interviews with sugar babes and sugar daddies; survey data of members of a major sugar dating site; and membership data of registered users of the same sugar dating site.The paper uses a broad definition of sugar dating, reflecting the participants’ own understandings. A striking feature in the material is the wide variety of practices engaged in under the rubric of ‘sugar dating’, including: the straight-forward selling of sex; economically compensated relationships imitating conventional coupledom; fancy, gender-traditional dates paid for by the ‘daddy’ and ending with sex (with or without additional monetary compensation); and economically compensated online relationships with no sexual content. This multiplicity contrasts both with the wide-spread discourse in Swedish public debate that sugar dating is simply a cover for conventional prostitution, and with the sugar dating industry’s – and some sugar dating researchers’ – claims that sugar dating is something other than prostitution.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Genusstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Gender Studies (hsv//eng)

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)