When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
CLARIN

Sugar Dating: When Is Getting Paid For It Not Prostitution?

Sugar dating, where an older partner provides 'a little assistance' to those who are usually younger and 'needy' has quietly found a niche in the land of Latin lovers.

Together, in a way...
Together, in a way...
Emilia Vexler

BUENOS AIRES — In Argentina, dating apps like Tinder, Happn or Bumble are a booming business. But some similar apps have been discretely profiting from the pandemic months, offering a slightly "shadier" version of dating, nicknamed "sugar dating."

It is not illegal, though everyone still uses pseudonyms. People submit their age and a picture, that's all. What may not be immediately clear on any sugar dating website, however, is that many are "selling" their love or affection. The most typical outfit in sugar dating is a girl looking for an older man with money, for a quick date, or a relationship. In other words, it's a broadly heterosexual affair for now with more than a faint link to the concept of the sugar daddy.

One user, MeryLupita 23 (not her real pseudonym!), wears tight jeans that show off her curves. The text on her profile is succinct: "I'm sick of hysterical w**kers. I want someone who understands everything and will be generous. I have everything to give." There is also Santiago18, a self-professed toy boy, who writes "I am a teenager with a very daring personality and good vibes, looking for a sugar mommy who'll spoil me."

In contrast with other dating apps, people do not upload "Instagrammable" pictures of their travels, dinners or pets. It is always selfie pictures, though you can also ask for private pics.

Clarín spoke to SugarDaters, the world's biggest sugar dating website, on sugar dating's popularity in Argentina, asking what it meant for feminism and whether or not it was just glorified online prostitution.

SugarDaters has some 4,000 users, though it is not the only such website operating in Argentina. More than 60% of its profiles are of young women or "sugar babies," with an average age of 22. Just under 30% are toy boys, and 4% are sugar daddies or men in their 30s willing to be generous. There is also a tiny portion or 2% of sugar mommies.

The website told Clarín sugar daddies were proportionately few and far between, compared to girls looking for them. "The sugar mom is practically nonexistent in the world. In fact Argentina's 2% is quite high," it stated. In Argentina their average age is 48, though some are older, while toy boys are also 22 years old on average.

The website admitted 30s was a younger age group than you might imagine for sugar daddies, but "it's not so exceptional. Society thinks sugar daddies are oldies, which isn't necessarily the case." According to SugarDaters, they tend to be businessmen "with little free time," while toy boys and sugar babies are youngsters "with aspirations but little money." Most of its users, over 65%, live in Buenos Aires.

Mónica Cruppi, a psychoanalyst and author of Vivir en la posmodernidad (Living in Post-Modernity) has been studying online dating since 2009. So far, she says, "none of my patients has turned to these platforms." Before them, she says, "these situations already existed," which meant a market already existed for websites like SugarDaters or Seeking Arrangement to exploit.

The difference between sugar dating and "love" apps, says Cruppi, is that the latter ones promote "hookups and romance, where loneliness becomes an object of speculation."

Money is not offered for a particular service.

In terms of socio-cultural levels, Argentine toy boys, sugar babies and sugar daddies are educated to university level or beyond. Interestingly, stats suggest this tends not to be the case with sugar mommies.

Sugar dating is not technically prostitution, in the sense that money is not offered for a particular service. There is instead an element of "financial support" that is integral to the relationship. There is "an emotional connection and expectations' that are absent in prostitution, says Alexandra Olariu, marketing head of SugarDaters, speaking with Clarín. She says sugar babies and toy boys choose their partners and will not necessarily seek to have "multiple customers' like prostitutes.

Psychoanalyst Jorge E. Catelli, a member of the Argentine Psychoanalytical Association, says sugar dating leaves no room for feminism, but prostitution does. With prostitution, he says, there is no pretense of affection, even "from the hostile affective point of view, which underlies this "power relationship" even if it is not explicit." Catelli also sees an "Oedipal" aspect to sugar daddy relations, a "search for a father or mother figure idealized since childhood, either for an unmet need or fixation." In both situations, he says, a power relationship exists.

Olariu says "there's great confusion on what sugar dating really is." "This means our website is inundated with people who do not use it correctly and we have to use all our resources to detect and eliminate those profiles," she says. A crucial difference with other dating apps, she explains, is that SugarDaters sifts through profiles "manually," with moderators checking every profile to ensure they "are real profiles."

She says the website bans nude pics, or straightforward prostitution. "We also try and make sure all content is authentic. It's a worthwhile effort, as you know at the end that you will find more real profiles than on any other website. We're very careful with content." Violations, she says, ensure your profile is banished from this unquestionably shady, and sugary, world of alternative dating.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

What Are Iran's Real Intentions? Watch What The Houthis Do Next

Three commercial ships traveling through the Red Sea were attacked by missiles launched by Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels, while the U.S. Navy shot down three drones. Tensions that are linked to the ongoing war in Gaza conflict and that may serve as an indication as to Iran's wider intentions.

photo of Raisi of iran speaking in parliament

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the Iranian parliament in Tehran.

Icana News Agency via ZUMA
Pierre Haski

-Analysis

PARIS — It’s a parallel war that has so far claimed fewer victims and attracted less public attention than the one in Gaza. Yet it increasingly poses a serious threat of escalating at any time.

This conflict playing out in the international waters of the Red Sea, a strategic maritime route, features the U.S. Navy pitted against Yemen's Houthi rebels. But the stakes go beyond the Yemeni militants — with the latter being supported by Iran, which has a hand in virtually every hotspot in the region.

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Houthis have been making headlines, despite Yemen’s distance from the Gaza front. Starting with missiles launched directed toward southern Israel, which were intercepted by U.S. forces. Then came attacks on ships belonging, or suspected of belonging, to Israeli interests.

On Sunday, no fewer than three commercial ships were targeted by ballistic missiles in the Red Sea. The missiles caused minor damage and no casualties. Meanwhile, three drones were intercepted and destroyed by the U.S. Navy, currently deployed in full force in the region.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for these attacks, stating their intention to block Israeli ships' passage for as long as there was war in Gaza. The ships targeted on Sunday were registered in Panama, but at least one of them was Israeli. In the days before, several other ships were attacked and an Israeli cargo ship carrying cars was seized, and is still being held in the Yemeni port of Hodeida.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest