The modern age of swinging as we know it is thought to have started in the 1950s when it was called wife-swapping. However, as attitudes changed, the more gender-neutral term "swingers" was adopted.

What Is It?

According to Mark Roberts, an organizer of swinging parties in the UK, swingers are "couples who jointly seek recreational sex with others while maintaining their emotional monogamy."

Couples who swing generally set up rules that govern their behavior as a unit. Some just engage in soft swinging, kissing, touching or oral sex with others, while some couples will go full out with penetrative sex, but only with their own partner present. Whatever the couples decide upon, those in the swinging community promote safe and consensual activity.

While many might view the lifestyle as a sleazy subculture, it may be surprising to them that, according to findings by Bergstrand & Williams (who conducted an academic study on the subject as part of their work in the sociology department of Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY), swingers are "surprisingly mainstream, even conservative, in their characteristics." The same report finds that U.S. swingers tend to be Republicans, middle to upper-middle class, middle-aged and (over 90 per cent) white.

Insider Quote:

"It's a worldwide phenomenon. I met bankers and lawyers, and I started talking to these people... Most of them don't drink and most of them don't use drugs. They believe in raising children in clean-cut, stable environments. They match our paradigm of the sunny suburbanite... They see it as consensual, co-marital sex and something that they're doing in order to spice up their own relationships. They are not going to a swing club to have sex with other people. They're going there to get hot for each other." -- Terry Gould, Author of The Lifestyle: A Look at the Erotic Rites of Swingers.

Fun Fact:

According to estimates from the Kinsey Institute, there are about four million active swingers in the U.S. giving rise to, among other things, a unique multimillion-dollar niche in the travel industry. Phrases like clothing optional, adult fun, and couples only are code words for such destinations. An ABC News special report states that there are hundreds of resorts that cater to the lifestyle plus the many "swingers' conventions that take over entire resorts."

To Learn More:

http://www.nasca.com/states/nasca_faq.html