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Fancy was in a better financial situation and could be more selective about partners. Not that sugar dating -- or any kind of sex work -- will ever be perfectly safe. "Being alone with a man is being alone with a man," says Fancy, "and they don't see a difference between a sugar baby and an escort. In fact, because it's the first area of sex work many people start with, the risk is higher because the expectation of screening isn't really there."

Nor are all sugar daddies pressed-for-time gentlemen who are just looking for a little affection that fits their hectic schedules. "Half are awful misogynists who want to pay you to deal with them, because no one else will," says Fancy. "That doesn't necessarily mean it will be more detrimental to you, it'll be just less emotionally rewarding. I have a friend who likes going out with the awful ones because they pay more.

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"Then probably the other half of real sugar daddies are just guys who are lonely and have money, but want something that is not directly transactional, so they're interested in a true sugar daddy / sugar baby relationship, but those guys get scooped up so fast. It gets so competitive among sugar babies, it's crazy. It's a buyer's market."

Despite sugar sites' insistence that "entering the sugar bowl" is all about forming lasting romantic bonds of convenience, the turnover rate for arrangements is high -- about two months on average, in Fancy's experience. "[The sugar daddies] meet someone else, or they want to stop giving you money. Usually it's this pull to keep them reined in, and then at the end of two months, it kind of peters out."