[Ads-l] "sugar dating", "compensated dating", "arrangement"

[Amy West]

There was a (in my mind a weird-a$$) full-page ad in the Boston Globe on 
Sunday, on p. A4 that includes instances of "sugar dating," "compensated 
dating," and "arrangement". Granted, a couple of the instances have the 
terms in quote marks. The purported author is Brandon Wade, CEO of 
seeking.com

Excerpts below.

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My lack drove me to launch Seeking Arrangement in 2006 and to build it 
into the world's largest sugar dating website.

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Mirroring my evolution, Seeking.com has shed its "arrangement" past. 
What started as a sugar dating site is so much more today. While 
compensated dating has always been banned, the phrase "sugar dating" has 
been increasingly misused, as such, Seeking.com is relaunching on 
February 14th at the largest platform for success-minded individuals who 
want to Just Date Up.

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End excerpts.

So, I find it interesting that we've got another use/extension of 
"sugar" as a euphemism for sex, and related to "sugar daddy", yes? And 
then that use of "up" as in social rung/class, as in "marry up".

Honestly, I don't want to know just what "sugar dating" is. I think I 
can figure out what "compensated dating" is (just prostitution by 
another name?).  And if everyone there is wanting to "date up", uh, 
there's not going to be a lot of motion, because someone's going to have 
to date down. This excerpt also includes a nice instance of that much 
broader use/sense of "evolution" (But that's not semantically relevant). 
(Neither are the bits in the ad where he claims he's "legally waiving 
[his] right to a divorce," which, frankly, I don't think can be done, 
just as all those waivers and releases we skiers sign don't really 
release ski places from gross negligence.)

---Amy West

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