Swinging

Want to swap your wife, husband, boyfriend, or girlfriend for one night of pleasure?  Become a swinger.  Although most swinging couples are indeed in monogamous relationships, especially amongst married swingers, to those outside of the swinging community, swinging is a phenomenon where the line of monogamy in a relationship, appears blurred.  Yet, to note sometimes swinging doesn’t involve a swap of partners.  Instead, couples simply incorporate another person into their sexual experience. In several occasions, swapping occurs amongst friends.  Friends which either met prior to or because of swinging.  Nevertheless, the idea of swapping partners stems from sexual liberation and revolution.  Swinging, sexual activities in which couples hope to spice up their dull, mundane sex lives.  Swinging couples decide either to continue on with one fellow distinct couple, or go from couple to couple, which subsequently forms a swinging group.  And, if a swinging group is formed, the group generally holds swinging parties where couples are able to meet and switch partners.

Now, before readers begin thinking JMU ShoutOut! has become a sex column, let me bring the topic of ‘swinging’ into the context of women’s issues.  Swinging was and still is heavily associated with what is called, wife swapping.  Wife swapping is defined as the act of two or more males switching their female partners for sexual intercourse for a set duration of time.  However, it must be stated that all parties involved give mutual consent. Yet, wife swapping is too andocentric and misogynistic of an activity to be equated to swinging.  And, regardless of persons convictions or attitudes towards swinging, swinging is in fact not a weapon to dehumanize or ‘enslave’ women sexually.  For in most circumstances, both men and women have a fair share as well as an equal say in what is allowed during swinging interactions.

Furthermore, I’ll add that swinging is a way in which women have been able to liberate and revolutionize themselves, both sexually and emotionally. Although some women are in a committed relationship with a man, swinging gives a space for women to act on their bisexual or homosexual tendencies, with the approval of their partner.  Of course, this idea goes against the fundamental principles of monogamy.  However, if a person desires an experience with another of the same sex without the fear of their relationship potentially ending, swinging is the ideal circumstance.  Moreover, one partner may not even engage in a sexual experience with another during swinging.  Instead, the partner observes their lover engaging in sexual intercourse with a fellow swinger, and in return is pleasured by his or her observations. Therefore, if a woman is engaging in sexual intercourse with another who is not her significant other while her partner is watching, she is soundly allowing herself to sexually liberalized and revolutionized.  This of course goes for men too.

Additionally, the phenomena of swinging permit persons to engage in sexual intercourse both safely and securely.  It is found that throughout several swinging populations, contraceptives and sexually transmitted testing are highly prevalent.  Therefore, one must note that swinging is not the formal, upper-class way of cheating.  Instead, it allows both males and females to experience others, as well as themselves in a protected environment.

To end, swinging is not a behavior which women have no say or control in fact it is quite the contrary.  Instead, it is a behavior in which both men and women are equally granted safe, permissible sexual experiences to engender a sexual evolution within each self.