The Materiality of Everyday Sex: Thinking beyond 'prostitution'

“My father, even he, is a sugar daddy, ” said Bongani glancing towards my surprised face. “He tells you this? ” I asked. “Yes, we are both men.” During the six months that I had stayed at Isithebe Informal Settlement, many people had told me about “sugar daddies”, although it was mostly from the perspective of youth and not the “sugar daddies ” themselves. Soon after our conversation, however, the twenty-year-old Bongani arrived with notes from a discussion that he had held with his father. The man was happy to talk about “sugar daddies ” for an American-based researcher, Bongani said. We read through the notes. “Sugar daddies work at rms that pay a lot. The girls can never stay without qomaing (choosing a…