Is Wife Swapping Risky (Oct, 1964)
From a letter to a psychiatrist:
Right now, we know of a few married couples who feel this way and every so often we get together and dance and play games. Eventually we indulge in sexual activities, exchanging wives. This is done delicately, and without any drinking. I can assure you that each couple is happily married, and we all love our wives, and of course they love their husbands. We don’t feel any jealousy or guilt for doing this.
From the reply:
The writer of the letter makes wife-changing seem a simple, pleasing kind of behavior if the participants are free from a conventional moralistic outlook. However, from much professional observation of sex activities of this kind I am skeptical about their soundness and cannot join in approving.
...
The reasons for this are two-fold. First, there is the question as to why a man and woman who are maturely response to each other should feel a need for this kind of stimulation. Most psychiatrists feel that it arises from ungratified childhood sex curiosity and may be related to unconscious homosexual urges.
So, say you're married to someone of the opposite sex. And then you decided to have sex with someone else of the opposite sex.
In conclusion, GAY!
I wonder why they kept records of that.
Because in Germany you can offset charitable donations against tax?
(I've no idea if that was the case in the 1860s, though).
from much professional observation of sex activities of this kind
That's my favorite part. The shrink engaged in MUCH observation (strictly professional, OF COURSE) -- but the swingers are the fucked-up ones. Riiiight. Shrink, heal thyself.
I wonder how the "professional observation" took place? In a lab? Because surely he didn't just sit in the bedroom (or rec room, or wherever) of people's homes with a notebook, pen, and tape recorder (FOR PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES ONLY) and "observe."
Maybe he did research at a university. And then he placed ads looking for people to wife-swap (for SCIENCE!) while he watched.
I always thought wife swapping was big in the mid-'60s or so, but it looks like it reached its peak in the '70s...
[link]
eta: This graph charts the frequency of the phrases "wife swapping" and "key party": [link]
So the phrase "key party" achieved popularity before "wife swapping", and had a big resurgence in the '80s and '90s.
(A "key party" is where each couple puts their keys in a bowl or something, then each man man draws a set of keys to determine which woman he sleeps with.)
Maybe he did research at a university. And then he placed ads looking for people to wife-swap (for SCIENCE!) while he watched.
At least Alfred Kinsey was honest about getting it on with some of the people he studied.
There is going to be some sort of Angry Birds/movie connection. (They say it's not a tie-in.)
I don't watch Fox News, but from what I've been hearing they've become more blatant in their lying. Like when Obama decided his administration would no longer defend the DOMA in court, Fox had a whole list of consequences that were completely untrue. And then there's this:
Subtropical Wisconsin
Via Digby, Fox News shows us film of violent protests in Wisconsin. Except notice the people in shirtsleeves and the palm trees in the background.
eta:
Confirmed: That Fox News Reporter Wasn’t Actually Punched By Protestors
This didn’t happen? Surprise! Some person was filming the filming.
Dog tongs were kept in churches in Britain up to about 100 years ago, to remove dogs who fought or otherwise misbehaved during services.
This reminds me of the great story in the final book in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, when Laura, Mary, and Pa are at Sunday services. Since the church was overcrowded, Pa had to sit elsewhere, while Laura sat on the center aisle end of the pew. Midway through the preacher's overly long sermon, just as Laura was getting really bored, a kitten walked down the middle aisle and started checking out the scenery from the front of the church. A few minutes later, a small dog did the same, and Laura was wondering where the kitten disappeared to. Then, she looked down at her hoop-skirted dress, saw the kitten's tail vanishing under the skirt, and then felt the kitten climbing up the metal of her hoop. At that moment, she saw the dog definitely sniffing around for the cat, and then imagined what would happen if he found said cat, and she started choking on keeping her laughter inside. Mary, sitting next to her but literally blind to what was happening, could sense her incipient giggles, and told her to behave herself. Only after the dog disappointedly walked away from the church did the kitten climb back down and leave.
