Meet British women who are funding themselves through university by dating rich older men via websites.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1 What did Samantha use to work as?
2 What has her new life-style bought for her?
3 Who do the Sugar website advertisements target?
4 What does '$3,000' refer to?
5 What do the Americans call this trend?
6 How much did Fred pay for her education?
Meet Samantha. She’s 28 and used to work as a glamour model, but 10 years ago she discovered the Sugar world, where wealthy men shell out thousands of pounds to turn a pretty girl into a princess.
Over the years I’ve got everything I basically wanted it to make my life how it is now. I’ve got my home, I had my car bought for me, I have watches, you know, expensive shoes, Louis Buttons.
Samantha says she’s only slept with one of her sugar daddies, the gifts are all given in the spirit of altruism.
Sounds too good to be true? Take a look at some of the Sugar website advertisements which often target students and you get a hint of what’s expected back.
Enrol the Sugar Baby University today and get your education paid for by a generous sponsor.
I like dating beautiful women…
Sugar daddy Mike works a lot and says he doesn’t have time to join the quest for love, so he’s opted for a short cut, and no strings attached Sugar arrangements, and he pays his current sugar baby $3,000 a month.
I look for companionship, loyalty, a friendship and, yes, intimacy as part of that.
Sex.
Yeah, if it’s with the right person.
The trend began, of course, in the US. The Americans call it Mutually Beneficial Dating. The head of PR of one US site claims to have 4,000,000 members worldwide.
So the top five countries that participate in arrangements are, in order, the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia and France. This is where we have the most not only Sugar daddies but also Sugar babies participating in this lifestyle.
It is really high-class prostitution, isn’t it? It is a conduit for sex.
For seeking arrangements, no matter what country you access us in we don’t allow that kind of behaviour on the website.
I got into it through a friend in second year.
Twenty-two year old Fred, who’s asked us to keep her identity secret, graduated from a top university last year dead free, exhausted by poorly paid bar work, she signed up as a Sugar baby. It was, she says, the financial no-brainer.
If a girl is sexually active, sexually inquisitive, sexually open, and you have your head screwed on your shoulders, it’s an absolute gold mine.
Love it or hate it, in our time-starved luxury-hungry society, sugar-dating is on the rise, and every week more students looking for a quick fix for their soaring debts are signing up.
Emma Jane Curby, BBC News.
Key:
1 a glamour model
2 a home, a car, watches, expensive shoes
3 students
4 the money Mike pays his current sugar baby a month
5 Mutually Beneficial Dating
6 nothing
