Women on Sugar Daddy sites aren't prostitutes - they're entrepreneurs
20th June 2012
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So feminism happened and not much really changed. Women still cannot do what men can do without receiving some kind of condescending pat on the rack back for their efforts. Women cannot have promiscuous sex without being called whores, and sluts, and jezebels (the misogynistic list goes on), and now women cannot date men in exchange for money and/or gifts without being called prostitutes.
Let’s talk about those sugar daddy websites that have been in the press recently for a second. Actually, let’s talk about these websites from now until the end of this article. Now these websites have been huge in the US for years but only now have they began to blossom in the UK, with the press insinuating that girls as young as eighteen are being exploited for their beauty and youth by men old enough to know better.
Do I agree with sites like these? The simple answer is no. Do I think that this is prostitution? The not so simple answer is no. The debate that has been sparked by these controversial websites isn’t whether or not the websites are ethically right, the debate is about whether or not these websites promote and thrive on prostitution.
Let’s take a brief walk back in time and explore the world’s oldest profession. (Rey) 1851 describes a prostitute as a woman who allows the use of her body by any man without distinction for a payment made or expected. Practically the same thing is said by Havelock Ellis. He refers to a prostitute as “One who openly abandons her body to a number of men without choice, for money.”
History lesson over, let’s get back to the task at hand: are woman who date sugar daddies (aka ‘sugar babies’) prostitutes? Again I stand firmly behind my convictions, these sugar babies are not prostitutes and I am going to use Ellis’ definition to make my point.
These women do not abandon their bodies without choosing the man in question; in fact they do not abandon their bodies at all - their bodies are always within their grasp, along with their mind, their personality and their conversation. If they do let go of their body, they have chosen to do so with a particular man. Yes some of these women use their bodies, but who can honestly say that they haven’t tried or succeeded at flirting to get what they want?

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