by Michael Westmont

Created on: June 24, 2008   Last Updated: July 02, 2008

We know that there is definitely Sex in the City, but is there a Swingtown? And, how desperate are housewives these days. I hit the streets in Omaha Nebraska, a good-sized city right in the heartland of America, and found that men have differing views on these topics. While most of the men agreed that "slutty" was fun to be alone with, they also agreed that that type of woman was not nearly pleasing in public.

The old adage of a woman being sophisticated in public and a tiger in the bedroom seems to be the core, when being interviewed by another man, of what us brutes really want. The fact is that television programs like Sex in the City, Swingtown, and Desperate Housewives are not made for men. They offer the same scandalous fascinations that daytime soap operas do, with the sharper edge that can be hewn by the late-night, cable grindstone.

In the process of writing this article, I interviewed 42 men between the ages of 26 and 45. Of these, more than half said that they had more respect for a woman if they had to wait more than a couple of dates for sex. More than two-thirds said that one-night stands were not only not relationship-starters, but that the overall appeal of a "one-nighter" was very low. In fact, only 4 out of the 42 interviewed said that they liked having one-night stands.

What about Swingtown? Are men looking for their wives and girlfriends to get involved with other couples? Not hardly. While most of the men agreed that exchanging partners with no consequence sounded good on the surface, they also agreed that "the swap" would likely cause trust issues in their relationship. As such, 40 out of the 42 interviewed said that, while they might fantasize about "swinging," they would not be interested in participating in the practice.

All of these men agreed that talking about previous partners is a definite no-no. The overall feeling was that men want to be the absolute center of a woman's love-life and have all of her affections. He doesn't want to share, neither with actual men, or even memories of them. One said, what do I care who she's been with or what they did?" The literal translation of that question is actually a statement, one that goes like this: "I DO care that she's been with other men and I DON'T want to hear about it, or them. It makes me a little jealous and upset that she still thinks about, and talks about other guys when she has ME." That's the subtext of about 90% of the men that I interviewed and they seem pretty sure about it.

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