Swinging in America: Love, Sex & Marriage in the 21st
Century
Curtis R. Bergstrand and Jennifer Blevins Sinski
Drawing on an extensive
survey of real people and over 40 years of research, this revealing
volume proposes that a nonmonogamous lifestyle may be healthier for
marriages than a monogamous one.
Is the monogamous ideal of romantic love—that one person can meet
all of our needs forever—a realistic standard or an unrealistic
fantasy? In fact, significant social science research suggests that
the standard of monogamy has become a destructive force both on
marriages and parenting, and that nonmonogamous relationships
actually provide a more viable blueprint for relationships today.
Based on an exhaustive survey into the lives of real people,
Swinging in America: Love, Sex, and Marriage in the 21st Century
concludes that nonmonogamous relationships such as swinging and
polyamory offer a new blueprint for combining sex and love—one that
may prove more in line with the way people actually live their lives
in our society.
Swinging in America begins with what we know about swingers
and the swinging lifestyle, based on personal narratives and over 40
years of sociological research comparing swinging and non-swinging
couples on factors such as personal happiness, marital satisfaction,
psychological stability, and personal values. The second half of the
book explores the historical rise and contemporary decline of
monocentrism—the sexually monogamous marriage as the organizing
principle underlying our culture—and the implications of this
decline for new nonmonogamous relationships and marriages.
Features
- Includes data from a national survey, conducted by the
authors, of 1100 swingers in the United States
- Offers first-person accounts from people in the swinging
lifestyle
- Provides extensive bibliographies after each chapter
documenting sources of information discussed in the text
- Lists a comprehensive index of terms and topics
Highlights
- Centers on the largest survey of swingers ever undertaken,
comparing married swingers to a national scientific sample of
married nonswingers on 40 questions about their lives
- Offers an alternative psychological theory of human
development that does not define the desire for nonmonogamous
relationships as pathological or immature
- Reveals some surprising facts about swingers, such as people
who swing tend to be white, middle class, Republican, and career
professionals
- Shows how U.S. Supreme Court decisions going back 150 years
have a hidden bias favoring monogamy
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|
Imprint:
Praeger |
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Publication Date:
11/2009 |
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Pages:
192 |
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Volumes:
1 |
|
Size:
6 1/8x9
1/4 |
| Format |
|
Price |
|
ISBN-13 |
| Print |
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$44.95 |
|
978-0-313-37966-6 |
| eBook |
|
Call for price |
|
978-0-313-37967-3
Description |
|