In my opinion, marriage in the traditional sense is a form of prostitution. Man as provider in a household is the same as man in the role of sugar daddy. It seems like in other parts of the world, people are more matter of fact about things. In the West, people seem to look at relationships through Disney goggles.
In Kenya, “sugar” relationships have become both more common and more visible
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Re: In Kenya, “sugar” relationships have become both more common and more visible
#22Does this remind anyone of sharecropping?
Re: In Kenya, “sugar” relationships have become both more common and more visible
#23Global replace "Kenya" with "USA", the tale still rings true.
Or anywhere in the west, really. It's just one more symptom of the horrific rising levels of wealth inequality.
I am unsure I understand your last remark.
This seems more a result of the rise of a new medium than the rise of inequality, i.e. sex-for-money and pleasant-partner-to-keep-around-for-money have been around for millennia.
Re: In Kenya, “sugar” relationships have become both more common and more visible
#24I'm not sure what I expected, but some kind of NSFW tag would've been nice :|
I think, if you can't justify reading a BBC article at work, then you probably shouldn't be reading HN at work.
Re: In Kenya, “sugar” relationships have become both more common and more visible
#25I am an outsider to some extent but it's interesting observing a repeat of the so-called "feminist sex wars" here in Africa. One argument is that if the society was more equal economically across gendered lines, then there would be no need for this kind of sex work. This is often used as an argument against sex work in the west as well, but I'm guessing the level of wealth inequality, and not just across gendered lines, is much more extreme in Kenya, so the scale of the difference could push it into a different regime.
I don't know what the answer is. I also don't like the idea of people on the outside imputing their mores unto another group when that group could advocate for themselves.
Re: In Kenya, “sugar” relationships have become both more common and more visible
#26Please discount the fact that I am a bit of a misanthrope, but... who the hell enters in a relationship not expecting to get something in return?
What you said is close to a tautology, and like most tautologies, they are merely a play on words and don't leave any substantial insight.
Re: In Kenya, “sugar” relationships have become both more common and more visible
#27Please discount the fact that I am a bit of a misanthrope, but... who the hell enters in a relationship not expecting to get something in return?
The way I see it is that although in most relationships people expect reciprocation, they differ in how strictly the people involved are keeping tabs on the difference between how much each is contributing.
In relationships like the ones described in this article, both parties are paying more attention to whether they're getting what they perceive to be a fair reward for what they are providing to the other, and should the balance ever shift too far out of their favor, they will presumably end the relationship.
On the other extreme, in a relationship between two very close childhood friends or between two deeply romantically involved people, one will often do nice things for the other without (I claim) necessarily checking the books to see all the nice things they've done vs. all the nice things the other's done in the past week before deciding whether to do the nice thing. They just do the nice thing, knowing that in the past the other has done the same for them. Only if there comes to be a very long period of non-reciprocation will the other party wake to the one-sidedness of the relationship and begin to reconsider.
Re: In Kenya, “sugar” relationships have become both more common and more visible
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or anywhere in the west, really. It's just one more symptom of the horrific rising levels of wealth inequality.
I am unsure I understand your last remark. This seems more a result of the rise of a new medium than the rise of inequality, i.e. sex-for-money and pleasant-partner-to-keep-around-for-money have been around for millennia.
It is arguable that this was how marriage functioned in the past in the west, especially when men courted women from their parents.
Re: In Kenya, “sugar” relationships have become both more common and more visible
#29Aside: I'd rather have a classic article with images and videos instead of that constant over- and underscrolling, images appearing and disappearing etc. I think the innovation is a bit compulsive.
Re: In Kenya, “sugar” relationships have become both more common and more visible
#30Aside: I'd rather have a classic article with images and videos instead of that constant over- and underscrolling, images appearing and disappearing etc. I think the innovation is a bit compulsive.
I wonder how people come up with these insanity. It does not add any value to the article and is so infuriating. Apart from that, I found the article good.