VOL. 134 ISSUE 15
The Vermont Cynic DECEMBER 12, 2017
Sex
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Edition
Senior gives sugar, makes dough Libby Camp Life Staff Writer Emily, a UVM senior, padded her bank account by meeting with sugar daddies. This summer, she used her earnings on rent and utilities. Sometimes, she splurged. Emily, a pseudonym for her safety, became a sugar baby to fix her college finance problems, she said. A sugar baby is a younger woman who agrees to date and sexually satisfy a wealthy man. In her time in this role, Emily met two men, but didn’t get far into the lifestyle, she said. “One was cool, pretty good looking, in his early 30s and was just too busy with work to get some when he wanted,” she said. “We met up for a drink to make sure neither one of us were psychos. “Afterwards we decided to go back to his house and do the dirty.” Strangely, it wasn’t that weird, Emily said. “It wasn’t anything remarkable,” she said. “More like a business transaction. “Like, ‘Pay me to look at my body and tell me how hot I am.’” Emily’s other sugar daddy was “a little weirder,” she said. “Most of them are socially
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: AUTUMN LEE
inept losers who think they can buy love, or intimacy or women for money,” she said. Emily described her one sexual encounter with this sugar daddy as being “meh.” However, “he brought beer, so that was cool,” she said. Sex therapist Claire Diamond said there are power dynamics at play in sugar baby relationships. But, she said, “these dynamics are at play in all or most relationships anyway.” The money Emily made in
these interactions was a bit disappointing, Emily said. “My prices were lame because it was my first time,” Emily said. “I made $300 per meetup with the first guy and $400 for the meet-up with the second guy.” Nearly 70 percent of all college students work while enrolled, with 25 percent working full time, according to an October 2015 study done by Georgetown University. Before she entered college, Emily was first introduced to
the sugar baby lifestyle her senior year of high school when a co-worker told her and a friend about it. Her co-worker explained “how she got to do it on her terms,” Emily said. When Emily’s friend decided to try it out first, she made $8,000 to sleep with one man about four times a month, she said. After hearing about her friend’s positive experience, Emily decided to try it. “[My] coworker told us
about the website SeekingArrangement, and we got involved through there,” she said. SeekingArrangement is an anonymous dating site that connects “successful men and pretty women,” from around the world in sugar daddy and baby relationships, according to the website. Men on SeekingArrangement select an annual income from $25,000, to $200,000, to “heir to a large fortune.” Emily said she grew from her experience as a sugar baby, but the transactional relationship became exhausting. “For some people it’s easy to just jump in and go, and for others it ends up being a lot of energy,” she said. “People think having sex is easy, and it can be, but anything pleasurable that is turned into work becomes work.” Emily said she sees a difference between her work and prostitution. “The difference is based on the relationship, which is supposed to reflect dating,” she said. “Like the classic thought that men spend money on women and women in return give them sex. “Besides, when you really break it down, it’s all prostitution.”
Condoms may contain milk and chemicals Caroline Slack Feature Columnist
Condoms: they’re an important part of safe sex. But, when using these contraceptives, students said they’re generally unaware of what exactly they’re exposing their bodies to – latex condoms are made with the milk protein casein, so they’re not vegan friendly, according to a Feb. 15 Huffington Post article. And some students, like vegetarian sophomore Alison Forman-Katz, don’t know that condoms contain milk. “In the future I would prefer to use vegan condoms,” she said, “but really, I’ll just use whatever I can get for free.” Sophomore Lauren Chelel, a vegetarian and consumer of vegan products, said consumers are lazy, and that’s why they
Cynic sex playlist
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Condom manufacturers often don’t indicate if condoms contain milk. According to the FDA website’s labeling classifications, companies are only required to print an expiration date and label condoms that contain latex. “I don’t think it’s too hard to make condoms out of safe materials,” junior Wyatt Garratt said. In fact, there are several organic, fair-trade and vegan condom brands that are available. One brand in particular, Sustain Naturals, was recently profiled in a Feb. 17 New York Times article. The brand’s condoms are certified vegan and non-GMO and their factories are solar-powered, the article states. Sustain’s distribution center is located in Burlington on
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Battery Street. “We’re committed to always putting your health first,” the company’s mission statement states. But, most organic brands charge far higher prices. A pack of 10 Sustain condoms costs $13.99, while a 100-pack of Beyond Seven costs around
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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: CAROLINE SLACK
$12 on Amazon. But, a cheap condom is better than having unprotected sex. A 2010 study by the American Journal of College Health reported that 26.4 percent of sexually active college students report using condoms every time they have sex.
No more excuses
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Looking for music to set the mood with your lover? The Cynic staff compiled a playlist of favorite albums to listen to while hooking up.
are unaware. “I never even thought to look up what condoms are made of,” she said. And some condoms contain spermicides that may cause irritation to sensitive areas of the body, according to an Aug. 14 Livestrong article. Such an effect increases the likelihood of STI transmission if the condom does fail, the article states. Condom brands like Trojan advertise condoms with the spermicide nonoxynol-9, which reduces the risk of pregnancy, the website states. While this claim may make users feel like they are better preventing pregnancy, the amount of spermicide in these condoms is so small that its effect may be negligible, according to the World Health Organization website.
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Members of the Cynic editorial board were sexually harassed on a train. They spoke up and discuss the difficulty of standing up to assault.
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