Literature Review # 2: "Swinging a Review of the Literature"

Jenks, Richard. "Swinging: A Review of the Literature." Archives of Sexual Behavior, 27.5 (1998): 507-521.
The article "Swinging: A Review of the Literature" by Richard J. Jenks (1998), is a recent literature review on the subject of swinging. His intentions for the article were to update literature since no review of the topic swinging has been written in the past twenty years. He reviews many different articles including some of his own studies and comments about their studies. Here are some topics that Jenks decided to review that were made by other researchers.
Characteristics of Swingers: Jenks found that a majority of swingers fall into the White middle and upper middle classes, and are usually in their late thirties. Politically, swingers are moderate to conservative and identify with the Republican party. Jenks notes that Gilmartin's study in 1975, found that 68% of swinging participants were raised in a religious home as a child, but 70% said that they don't attend church regularly now as adults.
Perceptions of Swinging made by Non-Swingers: Non-swingers perceived swingers as users of alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs far more than the swingers themselves indicated. Non-swingers also believe that swingers are of non-White ethnicity and are part of the Democratic party. Swingers are also perceived as deviant in respects removed from their sexual behavior. Jenks reviewed Becker (1963) and Hughes (1945) study, and they have formulated that when the person is labeled as having undesirable traits, then that person is also assumed to have other undesirable traits as well.
Personality Characteristics: Jenks reviewed Duckworths and Levitts artictlce in which they conducted a test and gave thirty swinging couples an MMPI, which is a measurement of personality and emotional disorders and consists of approximately 600 items. The largest group personality and emotional disorder was Hypomaniam, which consists of being hyperactive, often being irritable and low on behavior restraint. However, this finding should be read and interpretted with caution because the test was conducted in only one swinger's club and there was a limited number of responses.
Initiation: Henshel's article (1973), notes that swinging takes place through the husband. In 68% of cases the husband made the original suggestion to swing, and only 3 women (12%) in Henshel's sample made the suggestion. However, these conclusions should be interpretted with caution because the data came from a small group of twenty-five respondents in Toronto.
Reasons for Swinging: One primary reason for getting involved in swinging is the varitey of sexual partners and experiences. The second reason was that of pleasure and excitement. One swinger commented that swinging was seen as "forbidden fruit" providig the opportunity to participate in a "deviant" life-style, to defy societyal sexual norms (Jenks, 1986). Bartell's study in 1970, found that swingers indicatd that watching others perform, enables them to learn new techniques, which they used when they returned to their marital relationship. It was also noted that besides the "educational" aspects of swinging, men seek swinging for a sexual thrill. Other reasons for swinging is that swinging provides an ego lift, in which the person learns that he/she is attractive and desirable to other people beside their spouse.
Fear of Sexually Transmitted Diseases: In a 1992 study performed by Jenks, he found that swingers expressed only a moderate fear of contracting HIV (a mean score of 2.6 on a 5-point scale). This shows that swingers are knowledgeable about the risk of receiveing HIV, but feel that their partners are practicing "safe sex" and trust their partners.
Finding People:Swinging couples indicated that it is difficult to find other couples with same mutual interest who are also attractive.
Jealousy: Jenks' study in 1986, noted that 13% of swingers noted that jealousy is a problem in their marital relationship. It is difficult for some swinging couples to allow one's partner have sex with others or be seen as attractive to others.
Anxiety: Anxiety about sexual performance is also a problem in swinging. Twenty-five percent of males achieve an erection on a regular basis at a large swing party. An advantage of swinging is feeling desirable, however the downside is the anxiety or fear that no one will see him/her attractive.
Effects on the Marriage:Jenks' 1986 study found that over 91% of males and 82% of females indicated that they were happy with swinging. Less than 1% of females were displeased with swinging, and no males expressed unhappiness. Jenks also reviewed that Varni's 1974 study correlated with his own finding in respects to the satisfaction of the swinging couple lifestyle. Couples reported a feeling of an increase in warmth, closeness, and love between the husband and wife. This feeling was reported to be strongest after swinging with someone else.
Recent Studies: The amount and participation of swinging couples has been seen to increase every year. Attendance of Lifestyles, a yearly convention which brings swingers from all over the country, had a pre-registraion of 900-1000 couples, and had an approximate 2000 couple regirstraion on site. McGinley notes that the attendance at this event has increased every year. Swing-oriented magazines such as Connection also continues to thrive, which has two national publications and approximately 15 regional magazines. McGinley also points out that magazines are not a major source for contacting other swinging couples, but rather clubs are a popular source for meeting new couples. Another change in the swinging scene is the Internet. Many swing clubs have their own web site and it allows couples to learn about swinging within the privacy of their own homes rather than going to an adult bookstore. McGinley also found that the two top swinging states are California with nineteen swinging clubs and Texas with 12 swinging clubs. Sidenote, I'm sure these numbers have changed since McGinley's study was published in 1997.
Jenks' Conclusion: Jenks concludes that although many people disapprove of the swinging lifestyle and believe that swingers are very unhappy who have unsatisfactory marriages, there is no evidence for such a claim. McGinley states that at first, AIDS was a factor on how often swingers attended swinging events, but this fear did not lead to a decline in membership. McGinley believes that the greater problem for the swinger was the herpes scare which lasted for a couple of years, and if swinging does decrease then is is becasue of the brutal environemt/ community rather than the AIDS scare. Despite the venereal disease scares, there are signs that the swinging life-style continues to grow as seen through the major conventions and the Internet. Jenks believes that although research on swinging has decresed, the participation and the lifestyle has not.


-VLopez