While students often turn to their parents for help meeting the financial demands of school, some are looking to a sweeter variety of mommies and daddies to meet their needs. They’re using online dating websites that connect young, attractive males and females (known as sugar babies) to older, successful men and women (known as sugar daddies and sugar mamas).

Simone Dadoun-Cohen, CEO and founder of EstablishedMen.com – a Canada-based website targeted to hook up young, beautiful women with older, successful men – said websites like these are helping young people who are living on student loans and trying to get by.

Katie Haig-Anderson, co-ordinator of the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association Womyn’s Centre, said she thinks sugar daddy and sugar mama relationships are exploitative and unhealthy.

“One partner is being used for their money and status and one partner is being used for their looks or youth,” she said.

Although many would argue that these websites are a form of prostitution or gold-digging, Dadoun-Cohen disagrees.

“No, I don’t understand the correlation,” she said. “A woman owning up and demanding something is not a form of prostitution.”

Dadoun-Cohen said the sugar babies are looking for “what the money represents,” adding that they want to find a sugar daddy who wants the same things out of life as they do and “a man who they would like to be like.”

The sugar daddies, on the other hand, are looking for younger and attractive women, said Dadoun-Cohen.

“The energy that comes from a young woman ... can be revitalizing,” she said. “And that’s what a man who’s been working for many years needs.”

A counter-website to EstablishedMen.com is CougarLife.com, which Dadoun-Cohen said is run by a friend of hers. It pairs young males (known as cubs) with older, more successful females (known as cougars).

Browsing through the many profiles the site offers, it’s obvious that many of the cubs are willing to offer more than just their good looks.

One user that goes by the screen name jamie_27 describes what he’s looking for, writing, “I’ll be up front I’m looking to get laid.”

Another user that goes by wpgWolf describes himself as “Someone who likes to both be down and naughty, and likes to cuddle.”

Kelly Gorkoff, an instructor in the criminal justice department at the University of Winnipeg, said she thinks there are more solutions for young people than turning to websites like EstablishedMen.com and CougarLife.com to pay for their expenses.

“I think it’s disappointing that it has come to that,” she said. “It forces us to ask questions about how we [should] provide funding for education ... [and] for people that are displaced or marginalized.”

Published in Volume 64, Number 11 of The Uniter (November 12, 2009)