Thursday, June 28, 2012

Review of ABC Nightline Coverage of SeekingArrangement.com

"Is it prostitution, or a brutally honest search for happiness?"...

The announcer asked rhetorically as the Nightline segment began.  First part of the video featured Tommy, a 63 year old SD who is thrice divorced, and Monty, a 21 year old college student who has been his SB for two years.  He said he paid for her tuition and drops $5k a month on her.  It's always interesting to dig a little deeper behind the numbers.  Is the $5k/month on top of the tuition? And what portion of that is shopping/travel vs allowance?  The video also showed her thanking him for her boob job.  How did that factor into the equation? By the way, did anyone notice the size of Monty's tattoos?

Like previous media coverages, the video sensationalizes the sugar world and reinforces stereotypes in the name of entertainment.  Of course the SD is older looking with gray hairs, lives in a water front mansion with a housekeeper and chauffeur, has exotic cars, travels the world, and only shops at high end stores, etc etc.  The SB is of course a young college student, slim, attractive, and broke.  We know in reality there are many types of SD and SB's, but the media contniues to perpetuate these stereotypes that the general public have come to expect.

Then we find out Tommy has 6 other SB's (!!) and he spends $150k per year as a SD.  Again, if we dig a little deeper into the numbers, that implies there is $90K left for him to spend on the other 6 SB's which amounts to $1250/month each.  Does Monty know she's only 1 of his 7 SB's?  And how would his other SB's feel about getting the short end of the deal compared to what Monty got??

Tommy compared SB's to nice cars and explained that there are different levels of SB's like there are Walmart SB's and Neiman SB's, it just depends on which price range you want to shop in..  He also said he would not have SB's for companionship only, because sex is an important part of the sugar relationship.  Some might take issues with his comments, but I think he's just being honest.  For a wealthy man like him with plenty of disposable income, choosing to spend money on cars is like choosing to spend money on SB's.  He wants the wow and arm candy factor and is willing to spend more to get the "look at what I have" effect.

Monty said:  "I'm just having fun... I experience things I would have never experienced without him."  But when asked about having sex with a much older man, she said: "It is what it is... we all mature... so I'm going to be old one day and I hope I'll get loving too."  She was clearly uncomfortable with the question and we can interpret it to mean that she wasn't excited about having sex with Tommy.  But then.... should a young woman have sex with guys her age in the name of love and passion but gets nothing out of it, or is she smarter by having sex with an older man who can take care of her??  I thought the best quote was when Tommy was asked whether this is prostitution, he said "You pay somehow somewhere for sex no matter what it is."

The second part of the video features 24 year old Olympia who is a student and juggles mulitple SD's.  She's been a SB for 5 years and she's got her $15k tuition paid for, brand new boobs (see a trend here?), etc etc.  She was at the airport going to meet her main SD, Larry, in Louisiana.  But her other SD, Kenny, met her at the airport to see her off.  Then Kenny asked Olympia if she needs money and she said yes, so he took out a wad of benjamins and gave her what appeared to be $500.  The whole scene just looked manipulative on Olympia's part and tacky on Kenny's part. If Kenny knew she was going to see another SD, would he still come to the airport to send her off and give her cash?

Then came the most interesting part of the video... Larry is a Mormon from Utah and he has been Olympia's SD for a year and a half.  When Larry was asked whether there is sex in the relationship he said: "No... not at this point... we don't believe in having pre-martial sex."

SERIOUSLY??

In the video you can tell by Larry and Olympia's body language that somebody is probably lying.  Does Larry know she has other SD's?  And is Olympia having sex with other SD's but not with Larry??  Inquiring minds want to know! LOL...  Olympia described having a SD without sleeping with him is like "a dream".  Well, in the sugar world that is indeed a dream for most SB's, not a reality.

The last part of the video shows a sobbing Monty saying: "sometimes it gets to me to know that he's my only way of income."  Then a wistful Olympia said being in a sugar relationship does get lonely for her because "that person can't always be there for me when I need them to be."

Then the voice over concludes: "An emotional loss they believe is worth the financial gains."

In addition to the questions I thought should have been asked above, it would be nice if the segment went into the "end game" or "exit strategy" for the SB's.  Since both SB's are college students, we'd presume that they know there is life after sugar and have made plans for it.  Overall, this segment is similar to others where media coverage of the sugar world always focus on two main topics: “is it prostitution” and “is sex involved”. So from that perspective it’s more of the same. However, it was good to see that Tommy, Monty, and Olympia gave thoughtful responses as described in the SA Blog.

All things considered, this segment turned out as good as can be expected, so kudos to Brandon at SA for pulling it off!!