Level Up, Ladies

A digital ethnography of sugar babies, spoiled girlfriends, and high-value women

Amid our current economic, social, and political uncertainty, many young women online are embracing what they call hypergamy, a strategic intimate partnership between a man of high socioeconomic status and a woman of lower socioeconomic status. These women self-identify as sugar babies, spoiled girlfriends, and high-value women. Some feminists denounce hypergamy as sexually and economically exploitative, while others celebrate it as sexually and economically empowering. This tension begs the question: How do we define and identify women’s exploitation and empowerment, and how can a phenomenon be labeled as being both at once?