Swinging vs Swapping

To me swinging involves having sex with someone in a group. The group can be just you, your partner and another couple or couples. All in front of everyone else. Swapping is partnering with someone in a different room. Switching partners and having sex privately. You can have several couples, each swapping a partner. My husband said it is all called swinging.

I would tend to agree with your husband on this one. I think the term swinging can be used to describe the whole range of non-monogamous sexual activities, that do not involve romantic emotional attachments.

But this is all just semantics!

I think he's right (sorry). Same-room and separate-room swapping are each different subsets of swinging.

Swinging and swapping can be whatever you decide them to be. Personally, we think that it is all swinging and swapping is something that can happen when you swing.

My late wife, Laura, and I called our activities "swapping" for the most part because we did it with one other couple. We did both same-room and separate-rooms but didn't differentiate between the two. It was all "swapping." Later, when the term "swinging" became popular, we used that.

As those of you who have read our book are aware, we had another adventure wherein Laura experimented with playing with a single man. We didn't label it at the time but later retroactively tagged the experience "Hot Wifing" and used that term in the book. We were never happy with that label.

Whatever you call our hobby, it sure is fun!

I think it is the same thing. Swingers swap, swappers swing. It's just semantics. I have read your other posts about making love or having sex. There are so many euphemisms for sex. You can use the one you are comfortable with.

I would tend to agree with your husband on this one. I think the term swinging can be used to describe the whole range of non-monogamous sexual activities, that do not involve romantic emotional attachments.

 

But this is all just semantics!

This definition comes the closest to my feelings on the subject. Since once person may use a word to mean one thing, and another person may use the same word to mean something else, words are indeed important so everyone is on the same page and knows what they are getting into. But, we don't communicate in single word exchanges, we communicate in conversations, and that extra context takes care of 99% of clearing up words meaning slightly different things to different people. I think that is what is lost when people get hung up on arguing over labels...unless you are a dictionary editor, your focus isn't on just one word, it's on many words, and they all help support and explain each other.

To us, swinging is the larger category of behavior and behaviors or activities like swap, same room or otherwise,MFM, etc are just swinging activities. My confusion is more with the term swingers; I have always viewed it as a term applied to married couples but in this forum, it seems to apply to anyone that messes around a lot whether a single woman or single man, or gay individuals or whatever. I mean, when I was single and dating around, was I a swinger? I certainly didn’t think so.

A bit less than a century ago, when I first heard the term, "Swinger," (maybe in an early edition of Playboy) it described a young male who dated a lot of different women, had money, and, one would suppose, danced very well. Imagine my misunderstanding when Laura and I learned it meant "spouse (we were women's libbers) swapper."

"I guess we're 'swingers,' Darling." Said Laura, immediately evaluating the importance of the situation.

We swang from then on. If we were fucking someone other than each other, it was Swinging.