Montreal Escort & Swinging

Swingers

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 of swinging (or at least its wider discussion and practice) 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 androcentric (taking a male-oriented point of view) and inaccurately describing the full range of sexual activities in which swingers may take part.

History

17th century

Temporary spouse-trading was commonly advocated and practiced among occultists, particularly alchemists, in Europe (such as at Prague) in the 17th century.

18th century

Some such occultists were the Frankists who in the mid-18th century established in Salonika (Thessalonia), Makedonia, the Dönmeh cult : “The Donmeh now converted the Shabbatain Purim into an annual orgy, when members exchanged spouses for a ceremony called ‘extinguishing the lights.

“Once a year [during the Doenmes' annual 'Sheep holiday'] the candles are put out in the course of a dinner which is attended by orgies and the ceremony of the exchange of wives.“The Dönmeh and the Frankists each had sexual-religious rituals, ranging from wife-swapping …

“From collaboration of the Frankists with Zizendorf of Moravia derived the “initiated sea captains sailing for the Swedish East India Company”, who set up a liaison with oriental Tantrists; in a similar manner as in the 20th century Air Force pilots were involved in introducing “swinging” to the United States.

19th century

The sobriquet “Communist” was applied (especially in Germany) to some who advocated spouse-trading in the mid-19th century onward. However, no political connotations should be attached to this label. In the Communist Manifesto “holding wives in common” was one of the charges Marx levied at the bourgeoise.

20th century

While contemporary swingers look to earlier practices, such as ancient Roman acceptance of orgies and alternative sexual practices, swinging in the 20th century began differently.

According to Terry Gould’s Book The Lifestyle: A Look at the Erotic Rites of Swingers, swinging began among United States Army Air Force pilots and their wives during World War II. The mortality rate of pilots was high. Gould reports that a close bond arose between pilots, with the implication that husbands would care for all the wives as their own, emotionally and sexually, if the husbands were away or lost (thus bearing some similarity to levirate marriage).

This is debatable, however, since it would have been unusual for wives to accompany their husbands on foreign tours. Other sources point to U.S. Air Force pilots in the California desert as the original participants. Though the beginnings are not agreed upon, it is assumed swinging began among 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.

The first swingers’ organization, the Sexual Freedom League, began in the 1960s in Berkeley, California by a young student named Robert McGinley, in the sexually liberal San Francisco Bay Area. McGinley later formed an umbrella organization called the North American Swing Club Association (NASCA) (now NASCA International) was formed to disseminate information about swinging across North America. Many internet related organizations now exist, some sporting hundreds of thousands of members.

In the United Kingdom there was a proliferation of neighborhood groups in the early 1970s — known as “wife swapping” groups — and press articles in later years suggest the peak was 1973–76.