Taking a Swing Through Austin, Texas

Hump Day is The Daily Texan's weekly sex and sexuality column. In this edition, they covered swinging in Austin, Texas.

Not to be confused with polyamory, which is when a person practices both sexual and emotional relationships with multiple people, swingers are usually couples looking to have sexual relations with other couples or with other single parties. Some couples will keep swinging with their same partners multiple times, while other couples will choose different partners each time they swing for different experiences.

That's a pretty good explanation.

The methods that couples use to find their other partners differs within swinging culture. Craigslist, although very direct, can be fruitless when people replying to listings may not may not be as be physically stunning as they advertised. A more personal and natural way of exploring swinging choices is to go to either a swingers club or a house party.


Clubs tend to be more open to new members, but house parties require an invitation. There are also membership fees for clubs and the atmosphere in clubs and house parties tend to differ.

The article has some explanation and advice for swinging that is applicable to many other places. Silly laws often impose some restrictions in some places, like barring certain sex acts (like anything involving genitalia) at the clubs, so officially the clubs in those places are limited to being meet-up/conversation facilities. Swinging definitely isn't for everyone, but some people enjoy it, and consenting adults should not be restricted by the hangups, tastes, and prejudices of people who are not even there.