Swinging in America: Love, Sex, and Marriage in the 21st Century

(Hardback)

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Drawing on an extensive survey of real people and over 40 years of research, this revealing volume proposes that a nonmonogamous lifestyle may be healthier for marriages than a monogamous one. Based on an exhaustive survey into the lives of real people, Swinging in America: Love, Sex, and Marriage in the 21st Century concludes that nonmonogamous relationships such as swinging and polyamory offer a new blueprint for combining sex and loveone that may prove more in line with the way people actually live their lives in our society. Swinging in America begins with what we know about swingers and the swinging lifestyle, based on personal narratives and over 40 years of sociological research comparing swinging and non-swinging couples on factors such as personal happiness, marital satisfaction, psychological stability, and personal values. The second half of the book explores the historical rise and contemporary decline of monocentrismthe sexually monogamous marriage as the organizing principle underlying our cultureand the implications of this decline for new nonmonogamous relationships and marriages.

Reviews

Specialists in swinging, Bergstrand (sociology, criminal justice, and anthropology; Bellarmine U., Kentucky) and special education teacher Sinski explore the phenomenon of established couples having consensual sex with each other's partners, and ponder its implications for society and monogamy. Their topics include who are swingers (no phone numbers!), entering the lifestyle, effects on marriage, monogamy and the moral architecture of the law, psychological science and the therapeutic narrative, and the heretical narratives regarding sexuality and monocentrism. * Reference & Research Book News *
Swinging in America is an excellent read for those interested in alternative relationships and the social institutions that work against their success. I wanted to read the first half for the same reason I shamefully buy People magazine before a plane flight. But it was the second half of the book that really made me think, and which I strongly recommend to marriage and couple therapists. * Contemporary Sexuality *

Author Bio

Curtis Bergstrand, PhD, is associate professor and program director of the Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Anthropology at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY. Jennifer Blevins Sinski MAT, MA was a principle researcher in a 2000 national survey of swingers in the United States.