If you search for sugar daddy on the web, you will notice that the first entries are web services to put sugar daddies in contact with sugar babies. You may not know exactly what I am referring to, and not only because of the use of English terms, but because patriarchy is characterized by erasing, blurring or sugarcoating the political meaning of inequality between men and women.
Sugar daddies are older men with money and sugar babies are young and attractive girls with financial needs. What has been called sugardaddism is a practice in which an older man with money maintains a relationship with a very young girl with whom they establish an “arrangement” in which the man can sue the girl to accompany him to events, luxury items and/or sexual relations in exchange for satisfying material needs of the girl. The “arrangement” is a contract in which both parties define the terms of the relationship. In short, it can be said that a sugar daddy is a dirty old man but with money and, above all, with what money entails: power.
I do not intend to question sexual and affective relationships in which there is a large age difference, although the fact that these relationships are almost always carried out by older men and young women deserves a gender analysis. Sugardaddism is something else: it is an affective and/or sexual exchange for material goods. The novel concepts try to hide that we are talking about recognizable and ancient practices. This new language wants to hide that behind sugardaddism there is a relationship in which there is abuse of power and the commodification of women’s bodies. In this attempt to redefine well-known practices as modern and even liberating, a sugar daddy. He defines himself as a supplier of the material things that a girl needs and he does it even with a certain halo of success in the sexual sphere. Using these new words and these new concepts makes life more comfortable for these men, since it varnishes what is a relationship of abuse of power with glamor and fun, in addition to eliminating any stigma that could appear associated. We already know that patriarchy is making women’s inequality seem ‘natural’ or the result of women’s free choice.
The network is flooded with video tutorials to get a sugar daddy, publications with recommendations on what to wear, the importance of taking care of your body, of being thin, of being attractive to the male gaze. The websites that facilitate these contacts indicate that one of the main benefits is the improvement in economic security for the girls. These women get rent, expensive items, or a high-class lifestyle. A large group of these women are university girls with difficulties to pay for their studies. In sugardaddism, gender inequality collides with class inequality, putting women in a situation of extreme vulnerability. A just society is one that eliminates inequality between men and women. A dignified society is one that removes class barriers so that all people can lead lives autonomously. It is evident that these girls do not need a sugar daddy, what they need is a scholarship or a living wage.
See also Is 30 Too Old to Be a Sugar Baby?
The framework paper of the PSOE that will be debated in the next 40th Congress has introduced sugardaddism as a new form of commodification of women’s bodies. Patriarchy hides under the myth of free choice, once again, new forms of domination of women. Women’s bodies cannot become merchandise with every crisis, when women lose their jobs, when they go through financial difficulties when they cannot finish their studies. Feminism is the movement that fights for the emancipation of women from all oppression. There is no autonomy in the need to offer your body for money. We cannot tell women that this is not an option without offering them a way out. Public policies for income redistribution, the fight against poverty, and support for women entrepreneurs are urgently needed. As a society, it is undignified to allow a man in exchange for affection, companionship or sex to be the one to help jump the obstacles that these women encounter in life. It must be the State that guarantees equality by eliminating those obstacles that these women have in life. A young woman doesn’t need or want a dirty old man with money. She needs scholarships, affordable housing and a decent job and not some older man telling her she’s going to fix his life when all she’s trying to fix is her flabby ego. A young woman doesn’t need or want a dirty old man with money. She needs scholarships, affordable housing and a decent job and not some older man telling her she’s going to fix his life when all she’s trying to fix is her flabby ego. A young woman doesn’t need or want a dirty old man with money. She needs scholarships, affordable housing and a decent job and not some older man telling her she’s going to fix his life when all she’s trying to fix is her flabby ego.
