Hoo boy.  The Daily Beast is surely getting a lot of web traffic mileage out of this one:

If you haven't read it already, check out their personal essay, "My Sugar Daddy," written by a college student under the pseudonym 'Melissa Beech.'

Young 'Melissa' is a senior in Philadelphia who spent more than she earned waiting tables, which she found "exhausting."

But then on a job interview with a communications professional, the man offered her a unique proposition: not to work in an office, but to sleep with him in exchange for gifts and money. He offered to be her sugar daddy. She writes:

He offered me a monthly allowance, guaranteed a steady stream of desirable gifts, and promised regular vacations. He offered to send my friends and me on girls’ weekend getaways to spas and resorts. Other trips, he said, could be working vacations for the both of us, some fun mixed with some hands-on learning for me. And yet others could be just the two of us seeing the most amazing and beautiful places in the world. We discussed places we had both been and would like to share with each other. When he learned I had never been to London he was dying to have that experience with me.

 

What a contract! After a little hesitation, she took him up on her offer.

We're actually not as judgmental of sugar daddy relationship as one might expect. We personally think it's a stupid idea, exploitative even. But we also think people should be left to themselves to make their own choices about relationships, however whorish this choices might be. Plenty of relationships possess rich older person / hot younger person dynamic, albeit in less explicit way. Some people will always want to offer money and stability for sex and others will always be willing to offer it up. It is what it is.

What really annoys us, though, is 'Melissa's' reliance on having a sugar daddy to help her get ahead in the world. The black AmEx to pay for manicures is one thing. But career advancement is quite another. She writes:

"He didn’t hire me for the internship position (that she initially interviewed for), but because of him I have had several internships at well-known PR companies, and have plenty of networking opportunities, shoring up my future prospects for when I graduate this spring."

 

Getting her internships? Shoring up future job prospects? Most everyone we know toiled long hours for low-pay or no-pay at multiple internships and jobs to get where they are in their career. Right up at the beginning of her essay, 'Melissa' explains that the stakes are different in this crappy economy: "My goal became getting my foot in the door before everyone else." Okay, fine, if that's what she thinks she's doing. But we don't take 'Melissa' especially seriously when tens of thousands of other youngsters out there are getting screamed at my Miranda Priestley, not taking trips to Paris. It sounds like nepotism on steroids. But at least the recipients of nepotism aren't offering sex for their career advancements.