Originally published at: Remembering the Wife Swapping Crisis of the 1960s | Boing Boing
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Calling the practice “wife swapping” implies that the women involved are passive beings in the relationship, a piece of property to be traded like baseball cards with little or no choice in the matter.
Of course given the power dynamics of marriages in 1960s America it’s likely that was indeed the case for many couples.
That’s a rabbit hole I ain’t going down.
Over lunch my mother-in-law casually dropped she was part of a swapping scene related to the Massachusetts Unitarian “Church” scene in the 60’s.
First time meeting the future MIL face to face. My wife is permanently scarred. She didn’t know. We joke about it now.
Reminds me of a classic Simpsons line (following a class screening of the sex ed film “Fuzzy Bunny’s Guide to You-Know-What”):
Your women? Seriously? Even if you’re being ironic, a sarcasm tag was never more needed.
If there are rabbits in the mix, I think you’re doing it wrong.
Where in Massachusetts, exactly? Just wondering.
Springfield area. It’s probably ok now, it was a long time ago.
Yo, it’s not on me to judge other people’s polyamorous relationships which happened more than fifty fucking years ago, literally and figuratively.
Amen to that.
I have a few friends and acquaintances who’ve had successful polyamorous relationships. Personally, I have zero moral qualms with that (not that it would matter if I did, it’s their freaking choice) but from what I can tell, the successful ones require so much talking. Just working on the one relationship is plenty for me so far!
I remember it as husband swapping, but whatever…
Popcorn!
why is it called “wife swapping” makes the women sound like some object to be traded. Never hear it called “husband swapping”.
“wife swapping” makes the women sound like some object to be traded
Well, of course. Back when this was supposedly going on I noticed that the only persons I ever heard jazzed up about the practice were married men. It was a heaven sent excuse to screw someone other than their wife and not have to feel guilty. I noticed that the same guys suddenly lost much of their enthusiasm when it was pointed out that their wives would be screwing some other guy as well. If this doesn’t make sense ask a Trumpkin; he’ll be able to explain.
the Wife Swapping Crisis of the 1960s
You know, in Chinese, the word for “wife swapping crisis” is the same as the word for “wife swapping opportunity.”
Ha - We have a winner. Very funny joke @semiotix !
Which reminds me how movies and tv shows now depict that key parties were common in the late 60s / 70s, whereas as far as I can tell the idea was pretty much invented out of whole cloth in the movie / novel The Ice Storm.