The reality for most people engaged in this enterprise is far from glittering, and littered with compromise.
This is the lush, enduring image of the sugar baby, but how much of this rings true in the real world? The sugar baby of our imaginations, in the iconic words of Ms Petras, demands with every flick of their blinged-out wrist: “If I cannot get it right now, I don’t want it at all!” The relationship between daddy and baby is one imbued with a glossy romanticity by images such as these a fairy-tale dichotomy with our daddies – virile, mysterious, Mr Big types with bottomless pockets – on one end, and our babies – impatient, spoiled, designer shopping bags in tow – on the other, locked in a sexy, pouty, Fifty Shades-esque battle of wills over where the private jet should land.
You only need to look at the icons of gay pop culture – from the OG daddy whisperer Lana Del Rey, to our most recently cannonified Kim Petras – for an insight into this phenomenon. Our bratty, patron saints of kept boys and girls, with their French-tip manicured, Hamptons-spiced auras, bestow such lucky creatures with shining, elevated status. The sugar gayby, according to Patrick, one twink I speak to who identifies as such, is “an aspirational vessel”.
