Sugar Daddies and Sugar Babies

“Lend me some sugar.  I am your neighbor.”

–Outkast

This was a very funny, very interesting article from this week’s NY Times Magazine.  It’s about a website called SeekingArrangement.com that tries to set up rich “sugar daddies” with young women who want to date them.  It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like–guys are expected to fork over cash and gifts, while women are expected to provide companionship, sex, and whatever sugar babies do.  Check out this video on the phenomenon by Good Morning America.

I’m posting this because it’s interesting and funny, not because I have any opinion on what these people do.  I think it’s horrible to cheat on a spouse, but outside of the cheating, I think most of the people who sign up for these “arrangements” know exactly what they’re getting into.  As Mr. Iyengar said through the quote I copied here, it all becomes ego, and few people involved with this kind of lifestyle will find love.  However, most of these people aren’t looking for love, and it sounds like most of them are finding exactly what they’re looking for.  Everything is stated up front.  So more power to them.

Of all the stories, I thought Sam’s was the most interesting arrangement (on page 5 here):

One sugar daddy whose screen name is Sam has tried long-term girlfriends, mistresses, prostitutes and a brief marriage. Now single, the 39-year-old entrepreneur has found the arrangement that suits him best: a monogamous business-associate-with-benefits deal in which he pursues an entrepreneurial project with a young, beautiful, intelligent woman. He provides financial backing, mentoring and networking; she provides sex, fun and, inevitably, a bit of worshiping, all of which make him feel virile and influential. In between vacations using his private jet, both work hard on the project. They don’t tend to see each other much, as he travels frequently for his work.

Sam explains the business part of the arrangement further down the page:

In his arrangements, he says, he establishes a trust in the woman’s name that pays a monthly stipend of at least $5,000 for the length of their contract. If the woman decides to quit sleeping with him at any point, he may quit serving as adviser and pamperer, but the stipend continues regardless. “If I didn’t do that, then it’s like a leash I’m putting on somebody, and that seems really unfair,” he said. “Besides, then I’d never know what the relationship was really about.”

People wonder why other people envy the rich; well, here’s the answer.  There have to be tons and tons and tons of stories coming from this guy’s extra-curricular activities.  I’ve been somewhat dismissive of those in the book industry who gave Joe the Plumber his biography contract, but if Sam ever wrote a biography, I’d probably be the first in line.

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