Thursday, May 14, 2009

Wife Swapping 1950s-Style

Kirsten Monroe has been an inspiration for me in so many ways--her luscious poems and stories, her eye-pleasing blog, her every-part-of-my-body-pleasing recipes and that awesome barbecue party in the Mojave Desert with some seriously spicy hot-tubbing under the stars. But now I must add yet another reason why I want to be just a little more like her.

She does her research.

Kirsten just sent me a link to the full article about the wife-swapping couple I blogged about below (my lazy self assuming that it would be too hard to find). And yes, Robin, these folks are actually wife swappers from St. Louis, Missouri. Literal wife swappers, as in "let's get divorced and marry each other's wives." But, hey, you gotta admit they look happy!

In this 1959 article in Sexology, Dr. Dengrove goes on to discuss a variety of other partner swapping situations, making sure to include oh-so-scientific references to the Polynesians, the Eskimos and the Banyankole tribe of Central Africa. Not to mention university instructors (and boy, do I know about them!) It's really worth a read for a glimpse into 1959, which is so different from our own day and yet, beneath the dowdy dresses and ugly glasses, so very much the same. I know my heroine is going to find some comfort in it when she finds this article on the Internet. Thanks again, Kirsten!

(Oh and sorry about the badly aligned photo--I just learned how to scan pictures, now I clearly have to get more Photoshop/Web training!)

1 comment:

Emerald said...

How cool that it's something you can put into your novel. :) Nicely done, Kirsten! ;)