Swinging – why swapping can be fun!

With today’s society becoming more open and de-stigmatising individual lifestyles, the concept of swinging has found its way into contemporary lifestyles. Swingers are now considered in most dating services and have a plethora of their own websites, clubs and parties.

The opinions are split when talking about the origins of the swinging lifestyle: obviously one has to mention the ancient Romans acceptance of orgies and alternative sexual practices but other claim 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 and a lot of pilots died in World War II. Gould reports that through the intense friendships between pilots the implication arose 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.

Other sources point to U.S. Air Force pilots stationed in the California desert as the founder of 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 mid 50s, the swinging lifestyle moved from the military bases to other suburbs. The first swingers' organization was the Sexual Freedom League, founded in Berkeley, California, in the 1960s in the liberal San Francisco Bay Area. Ultimately 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.

Couples and individuals are attracted to the swinging lifestyle for a variety of different reasons. Some believe that swinging gives them a break for the senseless tension and demanding stress in their daily life while refreshing sex is the best antidote to relieve stress.

Others find the having sex with other people to be very arousing, and may find that swinging can become a medium for improving their own sex lives and relationship.

Through swinging, many people end up learning quite a bit about themselves and their sexuality. It is said that “a swinging lifestyle can teach one to give and take pleasure like the way you have never experience before”. Most couples find that having their partner actively enjoying and appreciating what they are experiencing during sex to be an incredible turn-on.                                         

In other words, swinging can be an opportunity to learn to relax and appreciate sexual pleasure, and may help you to view sex as a basis of pleasure and intimacy.