What is the Lifestyle /Swinging?From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Swinging, sometimes referred to as the swinging lifestyle, is "non-monogamous sexual activity, treated much like any other social activity, that can be experienced as a couple." The phenomenon (or at least its wider discussion and practice) of swinging may be seen as part of the sexual revolution of recent decades, which occurred after the upsurge in sexual activity made possible by the prevalence of safer sex practices during the same period. Swinging has been called wife swapping in the past, but this term has been criticized as andocentric and inaccurately describing the full range of sexual activities in which swingers may take part.
Activities Swinging activities may include (but are not limited to):
* Exhibitionism: having sex with a partner while being watched.
* Voyeurism: watching others have sex (perhaps with the above mentioned partner).
* Soft Swinging or Soft Swap: kissing, stroking, or having oral sex with a third or fourth person. Soft swap may be in the form of a threesome, group sex, or the literal swapping of partners.
* Full Swap: having penetrative sex with someone other than one's partner. Although this is the commonly understood definition of swinging, it is not necessarily the most common type.
* Group Sex: An all-inclusive term for activities involving multiple partners in the same vicinity.
Typically, swinging activities occur when a married or otherwise committed couple engages in sexual activity with another couple, multiple couples, or a single individual. These acts can occur in the same room (often called same room swinging) though different or separate room swinging does occur. On these occasions, swingers will often refer to sex as play and sex partners as playmates.
Research Some subjective scientific research into swinging has been conducted in the United States since the late 1960s. One study, based on an Inter net questionnaire addressed to visitors of lifestyle-related sites, found swingers are happier in their relationships as compared to the norm.
* 60% of swingers said that swinging improved their relationship; 1.7% said swinging made their relationship less happy. Approximately 50% of those who rated their relationship "very happy" before becoming swingers maintained their relationship had become even happier.
* 90% of those with less happy relationships said swinging improved them.
* Almost 70% of swingers claimed to have no problem with controlling jealousy; approximately 25% admitted "I have difficulty controlling jealousy when swinging" as "somewhat true", while 6% said this was "yes, very much" true.
* Swingers rate themselves happier ("very happy": 59% of swingers compared to 32% of non-swingers) and their lives more "exciting" (76% of swingers compared to 54% of non-swingers) than non-swingers, by significantly large margins.
There was no significant difference between the responses of men and women, although more males (70
than females completed the survey.
This study, while enlightening, is of limited accuracy of the swinging population as a whole, due to its self-selected sampling technique. Internet-based sampling procedures create a substantial potential for bias. For instance, swinging couples who had stronger relationships may have been more motivated to complete the questionnaire. Alternatively, one may infer that because swinging may cause stress on a marriage, only those with higher than average levels of commitment to their partners are able to remain married while swinging. Couples who have jealousy or strife issues caused by swinging will not usually stay in the swinging lifestyle, and therefore would have been less likely to respond to the survey.
ABC News reporter John Stossel produced an investigative report into the lifestyle. Stossel reported that over 4 million people are swingers, according to estimates by the Kinsey Institute and other researchers. He also cited Terry Gould's research, in which Gould concluded that "couples swing in order to not cheat on their partners." When Stossel asked swinging couples whether they worry that their spouse will "find they like someone else better", one male interviewee replied, "People in the swinging community swing for a reason. They don't swing to go out and find a new wife;" while a woman interviewee asserted, "It makes women more confident -- that they are the ones in charge." Stossel interviewed twelve marriage counselors about the lifestyle. According to Stossel, "not one of them said don't do it", though some also said "getting sexual thrills outside of marriage can threaten a marriage". Nevertheless, the swingers whom Stossel interviewed claimed that "their marriages are stronger because they don't have affairs and they don't lie to each other."
History While contemporary swingers look to earlier practices, such as ancient Roman acceptance of orgies and alternative sexual practices, the actual practice of swinging in the 20th century began differently.
According to Terry Gould's The Lifestyle: A Look at the Erotic Rites of Swingers , swinging began among United States Air Force pilots and their wives during World War II. In this small community, the mortality rate among pilots was significantly high. Gould reports that a close bond between pilots arose, with the implication that the husbands would protect and care for all the wives as their own, both emotionally and sexually, if the husbands were away or lost (thus bearing some similarity to levirate marriage).
This historical narrative is debatable, however, since it would have been highly unusual for military wives to accompany their husbands on foreign tours of duty. Other sources point to U.S. Air Force pilots stationed in the California desert as the original participants in modern swinging. Though the exact beginnings are not agreed upon, it is widely assumed that swinging began amongst American military communities in the 1950s.
By the time the Korean War ended, the practice of swinging had spread from the military bases to the nearby suburbs. The media promptly dubbed the phenomenon wife-swapping.
The first swingers' organization, the Sexual Freedom League, began in the 1960s in Berkeley, California, in the sexually liberal San Francisco Bay Area. Ultimately, an umbrella organization called the North American Swing Club Association (NASCA) (now NASCA International) was formed to encourage the dissemination of accurate information about swinging lifestyles across North America.
In the United Kingdom there was a proliferation of neighborhood swingers groups in the early 1970s (at that time these were generally known as "wife swapping" groups). In various press articles written in later years it appears that the peak of this activity was 1973-75.
Organizations Certain swinging activities are highly organized. Most major cities in North America and western Europe have at least one swingers' club in a permanent location (although they often keep a low profile to avoid negative attention); over 3,000 swinging clubs exist worldwide. Swingers also meet through lifestyle magazines, personal ads, swinging house parties, swinger conventions, and Inter net sites.
Although the term "club" may refer to a group that organizes lifestyle-related events in a particular area, it can also refer to a physical location or building. In this latter context, clubs are typically divided into on-premises clubs, where sexual activity may occur at the club itself, and off-premises clubs, where sexual activity is not allowed at the club, but may be arranged at a nearby location.
In the US, many off-premises swinging clubs follow a bar or nightclub format, sometimes renting an entire existing bar (frequently termed a venue takeover) for scheduled events. Takeovers are normally done to avoid interaction with non-lifestyle segments of the population, and to avoid unwanted negative attention. Consequently, on weekends in suburbia, bars in large industrial parks that attract a mainstream clientele during weekdays and would otherwise sit empty or closed on weekends (when business offices are closed) are likely locations for a takeover.
On-premises clubs usually have a similar format as off-premises clubs. A notable exception is that most on-premises clubs do not serve alcohol, asking participants instead to bring their own, thus avoiding issues from restrictive laws regarding sexual activity and the sale of alcoholic beverages. Concordantly, the vast majority of swinging clubs in the US do not advertise as such due to the strict moral climate there.
In Europe, off-premises clubs are rare, and the majority of swinging venues allow sexual contact and serve alcohol. Three standard formats exist: the bar/nightclub (usually smaller, in city centers and focused around a dance floor), the spa (which has pools, Jacuzzis, saunas and steam rooms and where people strip on entry), and the country club (which is out-of-town, usually serves a free buffet, and may include elements of the first two formats while also offering large play spaces).
A large amount of swinging activity is organized via the Inter net on various sites with personals, listings, and local information. For many couples, the swinging lifestyle and the clubs can be as much a social venue as a sexual one. Like many sexual subcultures, a strong community atmosphere exists, fostered in part by the greater communication enabled by the Internet.
Subgroups Bisexuality and same-sex activity
Attitudes to same-sex activity and bisexuality vary by culture and locale, and by gender.
As a rule, female bisexuality and bicuriosity are common in both the "selective" (see below) and traditional swinging scenes and tend to be the norm amongst participants; by contrast, male same-sex activity has a wider variation in its handling, and may be welcomed, accepted, frowned upon, or forbidden. Swing clubs and other facilities exist for gay and bisexual interests for both genders, but differ
