Reasons For Swinging

People may choose a swinging lifestyle for a variety of reasons. Many cite the increased quality, quantity and frequency of sex. Some people engage in swinging to add variety into their otherwise conventional sex lives or due to their curiosity. Some couples see swinging as a healthy outlet and means to strengthen their relationship. Others regard such activities as merely social and recreational interaction with others. [ 3 ]

History

It may not be possible to trace a precise history of swinging since the modern concept is so closely related to basic human sexuality and relationships, and they vary significantly across time and cultures.The term "swinging" would have no counterpart or meaning in many cultures and civilizations in history who did not value monogamous relationships or have religious or social prohibitions against such sexual practices. It is a historical term that is best understood as fairly modern and Western in its expression.

16th century

A formal arrangement was signed by John Dee , his wife Lynae, his scryer , Edward Kelley and Kelley's wife Joanna on 22 April 1587, whereby conjugal relations would be shared between the men and their spouses. This arrangement arose following seances which apparently resulted in spirits guiding Dee and Kelley towards this course of action. The arrangement ended badly, and destroyed Dee's working relationship with Kelley.

18th century

While it has been claimed that two related messianic Jewish sects of the eighteenth century, the Frankists, followers of Jacob Frank , and the Dönmeh , followers of Shabbetai Zvi , were alleged to hold an annual springtime 'Lamb Festival,' which consisted of a celebratory dinner that included a ritualized exchange of spouses. Such reports should be considered very cautiously, as they may simply be propaganda of the time intended on being defamatory against groups that the ruling elite found heretical, particularly since the groups involved were secretive about their beliefs, aims, and practices.

19th century

One of the criticisms of communism was the allegation that communists practice and propagandize the "community of women". In The Communist Manifesto (1848), Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels suggest that this allegation is an example of hypocrisy and psychological projection by " bourgeois " critics of communism, who "not content with having wives and daughters of their proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common prostitutes, take the greatest pleasure in seducing each other's wives."

20th century

According to Terry Gould 's The Lifestyle: a look at the erotic rites of swingers , swinging began among American Air Force pilots and their wives during World War II. The mortality rate of pilots was high, so, as Gould reports, a close bond arose between pilots that implied that pilot husbands would care for all the wives as their own—emotionally and sexually—if the husbands were away or lost. Though the origins of swinging are contested, it is assumed American swinging was practiced in some American military communities in the 1950s. By the time the Korean War ended, swinging had spread from the military to the suburbs . The media dubbed the phenomenon wife-swapping .

Online swinging took off in the late 1990s due to the rise of the Internet .

Modern swinging

According to 2005 estimates by the Kinsey Institute and others, swingers account for two to four percent of married couples with numbers in excess of 4 million people in North America . As of 2011, some experts believe that there are as many as 15 million Americans swinging on a regular basis.

Swinging sexual activity can take place in a sex club , also known as a swinger club (not to be confused with a strip club ). Different clubs offer varied facilities and atmospheres, and often hold "theme" nights. Furthermore, many websites that cater to swinging couples now exist, some boasting hundreds of thousands of members.

Research

Research on swinging has been conducted in the United States since the late 1960s. One 2000 study, based on an Internet questionnaire addressed to visitors of swinger-related sites, found swingers are happier in their relationships than the norm.

60% 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 happier. 90% of those with less happy relationships said swinging improved them.

Almost 70% of swingers claimed no problem with 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 responses of men and women, although more males (70%) than females completed the survey. This study which only polled self-identified swingers is of limited use to a broader application to the rest of society ( external validity ) due to self-selected sampling .

John Stossel produced an investigative news report into the swinging lifestyle. Stossel reported in 2005 that more than four million people were swingers, according to estimates by the Kinsey Institute and other researchers. He also cited Terry Gould 's research, which concluded that "couples swing in order to not cheat on their partners." When Stossel asked swinging couples whether they worry their spouse will "find they like someone else better," one male replied, "People in the swinging community swing for a reason. They don't swing to go out and find a new wife;" a woman asserted, "It makes women more confident - that they are the ones in charge." Stossel interviewed 12 marriage counselors. According to Stossel, "not one of them said don't do it," though some said "getting sexual thrills outside of marriage can threaten a marriage". Nevertheless, swingers whom Stossel interviewed claimed "their marriages are stronger because they don't have affairs and they don't lie to each other."

According to economic studies on swinging, the information and communications technology revolution, together with improvements in medicine, has been effective in reducing some of the costs of swinging and hence in increasing the number of swingers. And the economic approaches which seem best suited to capture the empirical data are those based on the concept of hedonic adaptation . These approaches suggest that it is consistent with maximizing swingers' strategy to begin from "soft" swinging and only later engage in "harder" swinging, and that also the search for ever new sexual experiences delays long-period hedonic adaptation and hence increases swingers' long-period wellbeing. Both these theoretical predictions seem to find confirmation in the empirical data on swinger behaviour.