Sugar Baby Research Paper

Sugar Daddy/ Baby Ethnographic Research Design In the dating world today, technology has created complex relationships that were not easily accessible or available before the advancement in user-friendly technologies. Online dating has become a main contender on how a person meets their spouse, but online dating has also created new websites that aren’t about “dating”, but about status and commodification. My research focuses on such relationships, known as sugar daddy and sugar baby relationships in the city of Jackson, MS. A sugar daddy is an older man who has a high income that seeks a younger, attractive women to be his arm candy, his sexual partner, or simply his companion. In return, the sugar baby seeks an older man who can give her an “allowance”, which she may use on bills, rent, tuition payments, or to live a lavish lifestyle. These relationships are complex due to the fact that they do not rely on personality or lifelong companionship as the end result, but are mainly temporary, secret relationships that fulfil certain
Since a majority of the research is done in informal settings, a lot of my notes will be in the form of handwritten observations, and these notes will be converted into digital copies. I will also have to transcribe my interview recordings from the sugar babies, as well as the recordings from the events from Seeking Arrangement that I will attend. An important aspect of understanding the space of sugar daddy/ baby relationships is using mapping to view how the different populations interact. For example, I will map out how the “match makers” of Seeking Arrangement interact with the sugar daddies and sugar babies, as well as how the sugar daddies and sugar babies interact with each other in an enclosed space. This will allow me to analyze who has the dominance of the space, and who changes their attitudes in order to impress the