Swingers and swinging: a critical review of early and current literature and theory

Abstract

The last literature review on swingers was written by Richard J. Jenks in 1998, and for the past 25 years, no review has been published with a focus solely this group. Some individual studies have analysed swinging together with other consensual non-monogamies, while other research has looked at swinging in the context of sexual health. This paper presents early and recent literature on swinging, highlighting some of the directions taken in swinger research, and addressing the challenges of finding a theoretical framework suitable to explain swingers, swinger settings, and swinging.

Keywords:

• Swingers
• swinger clubs
• consensual non-monogamies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported.

Notes

1 Planète d’échangisme (a French language term used by Welzer-Lang 2001).

Additional information

Funding

This research project was partially funded by the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund. The views expressed are the author’s own.