ABSTRACT

With the emergence and global proliferation of “sugar dating” websites, the phenomenon of sugar dating is gaining increased attention. Sugar dating is described by these websites as arrangements based on an exchange of financial or other forms of support for intimacy and companionship. The framing of sugar dating as something in between a business transaction and mutually enjoyable dating serves as the point of departure of this article, which draws on semi-structured interviews and a survey questionnaire with “sugar daddies” engaged in heterosexual sugar dating in Sweden. We examined how the tension between economic instrumentality and the ideal of mutual enjoyment is played out in “sugar daddies’” accounts of their sugar dating experiences. We demonstrate that the participants desire encounters with “sugar babies” to be based on both sexual and relational mutuality, i.e., they want the women to enjoy being with them beyond the economic rewards. We show that the men’s use of economic incentives to gain access to “sugar babies” stands in a relationship of tension with their desire for interactions to be based on mutuality. However, through various mechanisms they still manage to reap the fruits of the experience of mutuality offered in sugar dating encounters.

摘要

随着“交友”网站的出现和全球扩散，交友现象越来越受到关注。这些网站将糖约会描述为基于交换财务或其他形式的亲密和陪伴支持的安排。本文的出发点是糖约会作为商业交易和相互愉快的约会之间的某种东西，它借鉴了半结构化访谈和对瑞典从事异性糖约会的“糖爹”的调查问卷。我们研究了经济工具和相互享受的理想之间的紧张关系是如何在“傍大款”对他们的约会经历的描述中表现出来的。我们证明，参与者希望与“糖宝宝”的相遇基于性和关系的相互关系，即，他们希望女性享受与她们在一起的乐趣，而不是经济回报。我们表明，男性使用经济激励来获得“糖宝宝”与他们希望基于相互的互动的愿望处于紧张关系。然而，通过各种机制，他们仍然设法从约会约会中提供的相互体验中收获果实。