Troca de cuidados: estudo sobre as negociações dos casais adeptos do swing acerca da prevenção de DSTs/AIDS.

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the characteristics of the modern heterosexual swinger couple. In particular, it seeks to explain which factors influence the negotiations of the couples regarding the prevention of STDs/Aids. Swinging, also known as comarital sex, is considered one of the possible non-exclusive sexual experiences in the marital relationship. In the practice of swinging, the partners aloow, by mutual agreement, sexual intercourse involving third parties, preferably in shared rooms. The establishment of swinging as a lifestyle is the main premise of its practitioners. On the basis of ethnographic observations on swingers parties held in a club located in the West of the city of Rio de Janeiro, and by means of the analysis of couples speeches and of researches on swinging conducted in Brazil, Europe and the United States, it was possible to outline considerations concerning this group s sociocultural peculiarities, as well as to apprehend the set of values that guide swingers. The trajectories of the subjects, since they have come upon swinging until their real engagement with this universe, are also discussed in this essay. Finally, it intends to comprehend the main aspects in the matter of the swingers sexual conducts and their relations with the use or not of preventive strategies in order to raise reflections that may contribute to the debate on prevention of STDs/Aids among swingers.