Perceptions of sugar mommy practices in South Africa

Abstract

The study sought to explore sugar mommy practices regarding their occurrence, acceptability as well as perceived reasons why older women and younger men enter into sugar mommy relationships. An exploratory qualitative study involving 135 participants from 11 diverse focus groups in terms of age, gender (females=27%) and geotype throughout the nine South African provinces was conducted. Data on the participants’ views, opinions and experiences of sugar mommy practices were collected using focus group interviews. The data were thematically analyzed. The study found that sugar mommy practices were prevalent in South Africa. The perceived reasons for acceptability were: love, survival, and correctness. Perceived reasons why older women have sexual relationships with younger men included: sexual fulfilment, domination, reduction of stress, physical attraction, procreation, lack of self-control, youthful feeling, migrancy, difficulty in finding partners of compatible age and young men being seen as not demanding. Perceived reasons why younger men have sexual relationships with older women included: material gain, reduction of stress, being enticed, rejection by women of compatible age, peer influence and belief that older women are purer. Given the increase in sugar mommy practices, which may have significant implications for the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, it is necessary to understand the underlying perceptions of these practices, in order to develop culturally relevant and socially acceptable intervention programmes.

Women Who Trade Sexual Services from Men: A Systematic Mapping Review

“…The large majority dealt with women who traded sex abroad (k = 19) (Bergan, 2011;Chege, 2017;Dahles & Bras, 1999;Davidson & Taylor, 2005;De Albuquerque, 1998;Frohlick, 2013;Green, Scrase, & Ganguly-Scrase, 2017;Herold et al, 2001;Johnson, 2016;Karch & Dann, 1981;Kempadoo, 2001;Kibicho, 2004;Mai, 2017;Martis, 1999;Meiu, 2015;Nyanzi & Bah, 2010;Odunlami, 2009;Phillips, 2002;Press, 1978;Pruitt & Lafont, 1995;Taylor, 2001Taylor, , 2006. Additionally, two studies investigated women as clients of MSM-SW (Busari, Nakayima, & Busari, 2011;Smith et al, 2015), and the remaining ones examined the motivations of Australian women buying sex (Caldwell & de Wit, 2017), sugarmommy practices (Phaswana-Mafuya et al, 2014), male escorting (Taylor & Sunderland, 2003), and Japan's host clubscene (Takeyama, 2008).…”

“…Studies that Did Not Involve Tourist Women. This section deals with the six studies that did not involve tourist women (Busari et al, 2011;Caldwell & de Wit, 2017;Phaswana-Mafuya et al, 2014;Smith et al, 2015;Takeyama, 2008;Taylor & Sunderland, 2003). Broadly, the two quantitative studies that investigated women as clients of MSM-SW recruited 144 men from Nigeria and Kenya and found that about 65% of the men's clients were women (Busari et al, 2011; Smith et al, 2015).…”

“…This qualitative study recruited 135 men and women from the community. The main finding was that sugar-mommy practices were becoming increasingly prevalent and acceptable (Phaswana-Mafuya et al, 2014).…”

Transactional sex and HIV infection among commercial farm workers in South Africa

“…Participants in transactional sex are motivated by a spectrum of reasons from a basic immediate desire to survive till the next meal on one extreme (‘survival sex’), to purely undue covetousness for enhanced status in society, expensive clothing, exotic fashion accessories, automobiles and mobile phones (‘consumption sex’) on the other extreme in their quest for a middleclass lifestyle. 11 , 12 , 15 The stereotype in most cultures in sub-Saharan Africa is that men are expected to express their masculinity in the form of money, gifts and favours to women, and women are expected to reciprocate these favours by giving sex in return. 16 Therefore, men are often the givers of economic gifts or favours and in turn receive sexual favours from the woman in the relationship, 16 even though a role reversal could occur in the case of “sugar mummies”.…”

Transactional sex and HIV risks – evidence from a cross-sectional national survey among young people in Uganda

“…Transactional sex, especially among young women, has been linked to poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes as unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, sexually transmitted infections (including HIV), and sexual coercion ( 7 , 17 – 19 ). Transactional sex among young men and older women (or sugar mommies) are also characterized by economic and power asymmetries and are often associated with increased HIV risk behaviors such as inconsistent condom use and multiple concurrent sexual partners of varying ages ( 20 , 21 ). Research conducted among men supports the association between sexual coercion and transactional sex but these studies have been few and limited to sub-populations of men in universities, schools, or drinking establishments ( 12 , 22 ).…”