Sweetening the deal? Sugar daddies, sugar mummies, sugar babies and HIV in contemporary South Africa

abstract

In January 2012, the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Health, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, announced the launch of a comprehensive campaign on ‘Sugar daddies’ to stigmatise cross-generational sex, promote healthy living and encourage new and more ‘appropriate’ behaviours for community members.

This Open Forum examines the phenomena of sugar daddies, sugar mamas and sugar babies, both in opposite and same-sex contexts. It raises critical issues such as what is the historical context of intergenerational intimacy in South Africa and how do contemporary manifestations reflect or diverge from the past? Has the HIV epidemic shone a light on this phenomenon in helpful ways or has it contributed to a ‘moral panic’ which has characterised so many HIV responses in South Africa? Are current attempts to address trans/cross generational sex likely to succeed and could stigmatising a fairly common practice have unintended consequences?

These and other questions are discussed in ways which we believe could contribute to a more critical and reflective analysis of gender, power and context and sexuality.

Keywords:

• Sugar daddy
• HIV
• moral panic
• stigma

Notes

1. Though whether these were as the result of “sugar daddy” relationships was not specified.

2. www.gaysugardaddy.co.za, site accessed 5 May 2012.

3. One Love available at: http://www.onelovesouthernafrica.org/index.php/your-views-suggestions-on-how-to-deal-with-the-issue-of-sugar-mummiessugar-daddies/, site accessed 5 May 2012.