Austin Powers was probably using the word wrong, though.
That Damn Rat
Or just archaically, he’s from the sixties and the sixties were often described as “swinging”.
Furthermore a quick search of google offers simply promiscuous as a definition.
swing
swɪŋ/
verb
gerund or present participle: swinging
1.
move or cause to move back and forth or from side to side while suspended or on an axis.
“her long black skirt swung about her legs”
synonyms: sway, oscillate, move back and forth, move to and fro, wave, wag, dangle, rock, flutter, flap, vibrate, quiver More
“the basket was swinging in the wind”
brandish, wave, flourish, wield, raise, shake, wag, twirl
“Helen swung the bottle, clubbing Goldman at the base of the skull”
informal
be executed by hanging.
“now he was going to swing for it”
turn (a ship or aircraft) to all compass points in succession, in order to test compass error.
2.
move by grasping a support from below and leaping.
“we swung across like two trapeze artists”
move quickly round to the opposite direction.
“Ronni had swung round to face him”
move with a rhythmic swaying gait.
“the riflemen swung along smartly”
synonyms: stride, march, sweep; More
stroll;
informalsashay
“Penny swung down the drive”
3.
move or cause to move in a smooth, curving line.
“she swung her legs to the side of the bed”
bring down (something held) with a curving movement, typically in order to hit an object.
“I swung the club and missed the ball”
attempt to hit or punch, typically with a wide curving movement of the arm.
“he swung at me with the tyre wrench”
deliver (a punch) with a wide curving movement of the arm.
“she swung a punch at him”
Cricket
(of a bowler) make a delivery of (a ball) deviate sideways from a regular course in the air.
Cricket
(of a delivery) deviate sideways from a regular course.
4.
shift or cause to shift from one opinion, mood, or state of affairs to another.
“opinion swung in the Chancellor’s favour”
synonyms: change, fluctuate, oscillate, waver, alternate, see-saw, yo-yo, vary, shift, alter, undulate, ebb and flow, rise and fall, go up and down, go back and forth
“the balance had once more swung from centralization to decentralization”
have a decisive influence on (something, especially a vote or election).
“an attempt to swing the vote in their favour”
informal
succeed in bringing about.
“what swung it was the £17,000 she offered the panel to let her win”
synonyms: accomplish, achieve, obtain, acquire, get, secure, net, win, earn, attain, bag, capture, grab, hook; More
manoeuvre, sort out;
informalwangle, land, fix (up), work, get hold of, nab, collar, pull down, knock off
“what finally swung it for him was that his family kept writing to the State Governor”
5.
play music with a flowing but vigorous rhythm.
“the band swung on”
(of music) be played with a flowing but vigorous rhythm.
6.
informal
(of an event, place, or way of life) be lively, exciting, or fashionable.
7.
informal
be promiscuous, especially by engaging in group sex or swapping sexual partners.
Origin
Old English swingan ‘to beat, whip’, also ‘rush’, geswing ‘a stroke with a weapon’, of Germanic origin; related to German schwingen ‘brandish’
Rutee
Yes it’s correct archaic use, but – actually yknow what? Sure. Hollywood getting it right is vanishingly unlikely, but the author’s dead and it makes a better joke, so shine on, you crazy time-displaced, diamond.
Joyce/Dorothy is taking the easy road by now, but dammit, it would validate my “Joyce was bi all along” crackpot theory! There’s just enough evidence from both universes to make the case. And this time she doesn’t have sci-fi technology to help her bury it.
You know for all the shit I’ve been throwing on Joe, I’d say he’s the best informed of all three of them on gender, so I’m going to go Joyce, Walky, Joe for that one.
He’s been shown to be very invested in gender roles in the past, see his weird rules about how being a man meant he couldn’t own more than one pair of shoes. Whereas Joe is rather modern and informed in his outlook on women and gender roles, just a bit predatory.
Eh. I don’t know if Joe’s really more ‘modern and informed’ in re: gender relations, so much as he’s just invested in different stereotypes than Walky. His whole ‘no feels!’ thing, and all.
Does Joe avoid feelings because he thinks they’re too girly, or to protect himself from emotional pain (such as in his parents’ divorce)? I think that one is self-protection, not machismo. On the other hand, he is super invested that men should always want to get laid and all that.
Shiro
Tbf, it can be both.
Rutee
I don’t recall out of hand, did he say Danny was too girly for having feelings, or that he didn’t want to deal with it
Aninhumer
Again, I think it’s a pretty gender neutral belief. Joe believes everyone should want to get laid all the time, he just has a more direct way to encourage women to do so than he does for men.
JQuire
Joe seems to have had talking about his feelings with others go south on him in the past. He’s keeps it surface level for self-defense purposes:
Correction: It’s for self defense, I’m reading in that Joe has had a bad experience in the past with this.
Leorale
Yes, I meant in addition. Walky’s particular flavour of rigid gender roles is the type with only one pair of shoes, the k-mart brand of soap, lots of meat, and a man-cave where moms (or a mom-like wife) can’t bother him.
(Compare with the 1950s husband-role of the protective, reliable, godly man who works a job to provide for the family, which is probably the rigid ideal with which Joyce was raised.)
for the shoes things, it’s more about Joe wanting to be fashionable to have better successes.
Kryss LaBryn
Where the hell did Walky get that from, anyways? He’s been living at home until a few weeks ago.
How does his Dad feel about men and shoes? “One pair of brown loafers and that’s it, Tinkerbell!”?
Lord Stoneheart
I would guess TV. Walks watches a lot of TV.
Captain Button
It is less a “real men don’t have a second set of shoes” thing than a “why should I waste time and money buying shoes when I already have a perfectly good set already?”
It is laziness, not principle.
Digressing, why does Walky bother to shave? Unless you are concerned with conformity to fashion or societal standards, why waste time every morning making your face feel funny?
Or does he just not have much beard growth yet?
Greenygal
Laziness probably features in his motivations, but he’s at least using gender to justify it. His exact words were “Only girls own more than one pair of shoes,” and he tried to mock Joe for doing so.
void
It is both laziness AND principle.
His principles are based around slacking as much as possible.
John
Well wanting to be a man-child means rejecting career ambitions. But it doesn’t mean accepting parenting ambitions which is the traditional trade off expected of women.
And traditionally men have gotten away with quite a lot of immature shit without getting called on it.
kelticat
My sister once noted that boys are raised to be boys and girls are raised to be mothers. I guess she used that to explain the behavior of our father, her husband, and her in-laws.
But given that they were opening said discussion with a cheesy “Hello Wife!”, “Hello Husband!”, I wonder how much serious discussion they’d actually have gotten done here today anyway… :/
You’d be surprised. The lack of initial commitment could even cause them to stumble into uncomfortable territory unexpectedly since they won’t be on their guard.
Tom T.
Indeed. I suspect Dorothy has more requirements for a spouse than Walky realizes.
Buhzim
Iirc, she outright told him that once, that their relationship is just for fun and has no real future. Later she seemed to change her mind, which caused some problems when he revealed he liked the original plan and refused to even talk about love. It’s a good thing that Joyce interrupted them because as soon as they touch that subject again an ugly breakup is the most likely result.
Rutee
…she didn’t change her mind. She said she loved him. It’s on you if you can’t figure out how that makes sense.
Buhzim
She said they shouldn’t get too attached because this year at the university is (was?) just a stepping atone for her career and she wouldn’t stick around for long. Later on she says she loves him, expecting to hear the same and getting mad when he refuses and reminds her of the “this is just for fun” deal. I don’t see how this could be anything other than Dorothy changing her mind about what shr wanted out of their relationship.
Lord Stoneheart
And then her and Walky had a conversation about what love means. The relationship might mean more to her than “just for fun” like it did at the start but she seems to have accepted that it might still mean only that for Walky.
Spencer
Specifically, Dorothy acknowledges that she’s developing deeper feelings for Walky than what a “for fun” relationship would entail, and she’s trying to deal with that while staying the course.
Random832
Falling in love with someone you originally considered a “just for fun” relationship is a change of someone’s mind, even if it’s not, strictly speaking, something she has voluntary control over.
Rutee
….No, that’s the point, it isn’t. It means you’re interpreting a ‘just for fun’ relationship as one that has no love, not a relationship that is inherently temporary. If you can’t figure out how to make sense of that, it’s on you. Dotty clearly knows.
thejeff
It is however not surprising that when you’ve been told it’s a “just for fun” relationship and the other person suddenly confesses their love, you’ll be taken aback a bit. Especially if you’ve been holding back yourself to keep the inevitable pain of it ending from being too bad.
Interesting to think how it would play if the case was reversed and it was the other partner who’d brought up love to the one who’d set out the “just for fun” limits. (Obviously wouldn’t work with Dorothy & Walky, given their personalities, but hypothetically…)
Buhzim
I can’t say I can imagine a no strings attached relationship that involves mutual declarations of love, no. It’s one or the other, if you expect a genuine “I love you too” back then you clearly want more than a little fun. Otherwise why would Dorothy get upset when Walky casually replied “yeah me too” and added that it was “just a bunch of words” to him? It was her idea to not get too involved since she’s leaving soon, so everything is working as intended, right? Right?
And it doesn’t have to involve love. If we’re coworkers and you tell me that we should keep our relationship strictly to a professional level, then ask me to be your best man at your marriage, I’m gonna wonder too. Do you want to be my friend or not?
Disloyal Subject
Her parents had a point when tbey said that sometimes ‘just for fun’ ends up being what you want in the long haul. I think they could make it work; Walky is a force to be reckoned with when be puts his mind to something, and Dorothy is about as goal-oriented as a person can get.
I think the assignment would have been good for their relationship’s growth. Maybe they’ll discuss it after class.
But Walky has shown on multiple occasions that he truly believes Dorothy will become president. I don’t see this kind of exchange at all.
The problem is more likely to revolve around unrealistic (or just competing) notions about what’s possible within that framework.
Walky: So we should have a couple of kids while we’re young. I want to be a dad while I’m still cool.
Dorothy: *We* can’t have kids while *I’m* in law school and running my early career local campaigns.
Walky: but you have to have kids for the publicity shots! And a dog! All the candidates have them! Look at Hillary!
Dorothy: I don’t plan to wait to run for office until I’m in my 70s…
Etc. etc.
314 thoughts on “Spouse”
Captain Button
I thought the unit on wife-swapping was next week.
Plasma Mongoose
Do swingers get extra credit?
Aeron
In that case, Joe graduated when he walked through the door.
Kamino Neko
Joe’s not a swinger. ‘Swinging’ makes no sense if you’re not in a committed relationship. It’s just ‘random hookups’.
Captain Button
Perfect avatar for that. “The more you know…”
Wire Segal
The more you know, the more V5-like variants you can design!
Rabid Rabbit
I dunno, if his pants are down he may be swinging.
AeroQC
Austin Powers is a swinger and, last I checked, he was not in a committed relationship.
“Wait a tick… That means I’m single again!”
Rutee
Austin Powers was probably using the word wrong, though.
That Damn Rat
Or just archaically, he’s from the sixties and the sixties were often described as “swinging”.
Furthermore a quick search of google offers simply promiscuous as a definition.
swing
swɪŋ/
verb
gerund or present participle: swinging
1.
move or cause to move back and forth or from side to side while suspended or on an axis.
“her long black skirt swung about her legs”
synonyms: sway, oscillate, move back and forth, move to and fro, wave, wag, dangle, rock, flutter, flap, vibrate, quiver More
“the basket was swinging in the wind”
brandish, wave, flourish, wield, raise, shake, wag, twirl
“Helen swung the bottle, clubbing Goldman at the base of the skull”
informal
be executed by hanging.
“now he was going to swing for it”
turn (a ship or aircraft) to all compass points in succession, in order to test compass error.
2.
move by grasping a support from below and leaping.
“we swung across like two trapeze artists”
move quickly round to the opposite direction.
“Ronni had swung round to face him”
move with a rhythmic swaying gait.
“the riflemen swung along smartly”
synonyms: stride, march, sweep; More
stroll;
informalsashay
“Penny swung down the drive”
3.
move or cause to move in a smooth, curving line.
“she swung her legs to the side of the bed”
bring down (something held) with a curving movement, typically in order to hit an object.
“I swung the club and missed the ball”
attempt to hit or punch, typically with a wide curving movement of the arm.
“he swung at me with the tyre wrench”
deliver (a punch) with a wide curving movement of the arm.
“she swung a punch at him”
Cricket
(of a bowler) make a delivery of (a ball) deviate sideways from a regular course in the air.
Cricket
(of a delivery) deviate sideways from a regular course.
4.
shift or cause to shift from one opinion, mood, or state of affairs to another.
“opinion swung in the Chancellor’s favour”
synonyms: change, fluctuate, oscillate, waver, alternate, see-saw, yo-yo, vary, shift, alter, undulate, ebb and flow, rise and fall, go up and down, go back and forth
“the balance had once more swung from centralization to decentralization”
have a decisive influence on (something, especially a vote or election).
“an attempt to swing the vote in their favour”
informal
succeed in bringing about.
“what swung it was the £17,000 she offered the panel to let her win”
synonyms: accomplish, achieve, obtain, acquire, get, secure, net, win, earn, attain, bag, capture, grab, hook; More
manoeuvre, sort out;
informalwangle, land, fix (up), work, get hold of, nab, collar, pull down, knock off
“what finally swung it for him was that his family kept writing to the State Governor”
5.
play music with a flowing but vigorous rhythm.
“the band swung on”
(of music) be played with a flowing but vigorous rhythm.
6.
informal
(of an event, place, or way of life) be lively, exciting, or fashionable.
7.
informal
be promiscuous, especially by engaging in group sex or swapping sexual partners.
Origin
Old English swingan ‘to beat, whip’, also ‘rush’, geswing ‘a stroke with a weapon’, of Germanic origin; related to German schwingen ‘brandish’
Rutee
Yes it’s correct archaic use, but – actually yknow what? Sure. Hollywood getting it right is vanishingly unlikely, but the author’s dead and it makes a better joke, so shine on, you crazy time-displaced, diamond.
Willoughby Chase
Joe’s the King of the Swingers!
Captain Button
Surely he is the Sultan of Swingers.
Willoughby Chase
Well played, sir.
Opus the Poet
Multiple cases of “perfect avatars” tonight…
LeslieBean4Shizzle
I hope so.
Wait, I’m not in that class.
saltchocolate
No, you’re teaching it!
Mada
Oh god Dorothy and Walky are such dorks.
I love it.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Joycy: OK, we’re switching. Walky, you’re now Joe’s wife! Dorothy is mine!
….um subtext much? xD
AlexDenton
I know right? Can’t wait to see if Joyce is gonna react when she realizes. Maybe she’ll be like “What, like none of you saw that coming?” XD
Megatron
Joyce is as adorable as a fleshling can get. Which, admittedly, isn’t much. But still.
Tom T.
I kind of wonder what differences in expectations might emerge if D and W had to be spouses for this exercise.
Ana Chronistic
JOYCE-DOROTHY AT LAST
Emily
yessssssssss <3
Inkblot
Not only Joyce-Dorothy, but also Walky-Joe. We’re getting double the gayness for the same price!
Silvester Crow
Walky x Joe also confirmed.
Tacos
So now I wonder how Walky and Joe would divide responsibilities.
Nono
Walky’s in charge of McNuggets, Joe’s in charge of booze and chicks.
And good times were had by all.
Tacos
It’ll be hilarious if Walky has to be the “responsible one” for once.
DarkoNeko
That’d break him.
void
nah this will totally be the continuity where Joe has to grow up near the start to make up for LAST universe.
Deanatay
And neither one is in charge of graduating…
TERRIBLE PAIR
Dorje Sylas
It’s kind of a Joeky, right?
Zaidyer
Joyce/Dorothy is taking the easy road by now, but dammit, it would validate my “Joyce was bi all along” crackpot theory! There’s just enough evidence from both universes to make the case. And this time she doesn’t have sci-fi technology to help her bury it.
saltchocolate
Headline: Willis Fan-Services Fans for New Year; Breezes Felt Across the Globe.
Rutee
I COULD NOT YES TGIS HARDER. THANK YOU WILLIS
Max
Who’s got more old fashioned views on the responsibilities of each gender, Joyce, Joe, or Walky? Find out next time on…
Cerberus
You know for all the shit I’ve been throwing on Joe, I’d say he’s the best informed of all three of them on gender, so I’m going to go Joyce, Walky, Joe for that one.
Leorale
Definitely. Walky would also want to be a manchild for as long as possible; not sure whether that counts as a traditional role.
Cerberus
He’s been shown to be very invested in gender roles in the past, see his weird rules about how being a man meant he couldn’t own more than one pair of shoes. Whereas Joe is rather modern and informed in his outlook on women and gender roles, just a bit predatory.
Kamino Neko
Eh. I don’t know if Joe’s really more ‘modern and informed’ in re: gender relations, so much as he’s just invested in different stereotypes than Walky. His whole ‘no feels!’ thing, and all.
Cerberus
True, true.
Leorale
Does Joe avoid feelings because he thinks they’re too girly, or to protect himself from emotional pain (such as in his parents’ divorce)? I think that one is self-protection, not machismo. On the other hand, he is super invested that men should always want to get laid and all that.
Shiro
Tbf, it can be both.
Rutee
I don’t recall out of hand, did he say Danny was too girly for having feelings, or that he didn’t want to deal with it
Aninhumer
Again, I think it’s a pretty gender neutral belief. Joe believes everyone should want to get laid all the time, he just has a more direct way to encourage women to do so than he does for men.
JQuire
Joe seems to have had talking about his feelings with others go south on him in the past. He’s keeps it surface level for self-defense purposes:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/fetishy/
JQuire
Correction: It’s for self defense, I’m reading in that Joe has had a bad experience in the past with this.
Leorale
Yes, I meant in addition. Walky’s particular flavour of rigid gender roles is the type with only one pair of shoes, the k-mart brand of soap, lots of meat, and a man-cave where moms (or a mom-like wife) can’t bother him.
(Compare with the 1950s husband-role of the protective, reliable, godly man who works a job to provide for the family, which is probably the rigid ideal with which Joyce was raised.)
DarkoNeko
for the shoes things, it’s more about Joe wanting to be fashionable to have better successes.
Kryss LaBryn
Where the hell did Walky get that from, anyways? He’s been living at home until a few weeks ago.
How does his Dad feel about men and shoes? “One pair of brown loafers and that’s it, Tinkerbell!”?
Lord Stoneheart
I would guess TV. Walks watches a lot of TV.
Captain Button
It is less a “real men don’t have a second set of shoes” thing than a “why should I waste time and money buying shoes when I already have a perfectly good set already?”
It is laziness, not principle.
Digressing, why does Walky bother to shave? Unless you are concerned with conformity to fashion or societal standards, why waste time every morning making your face feel funny?
Or does he just not have much beard growth yet?
Greenygal
Laziness probably features in his motivations, but he’s at least using gender to justify it. His exact words were “Only girls own more than one pair of shoes,” and he tried to mock Joe for doing so.
void
It is both laziness AND principle.
His principles are based around slacking as much as possible.
John
Well wanting to be a man-child means rejecting career ambitions. But it doesn’t mean accepting parenting ambitions which is the traditional trade off expected of women.
And traditionally men have gotten away with quite a lot of immature shit without getting called on it.
kelticat
My sister once noted that boys are raised to be boys and girls are raised to be mothers. I guess she used that to explain the behavior of our father, her husband, and her in-laws.
Viktoria
Nooo! Joyce, stop. Dorothy and Walky need to talk honestly about their relationship and this was perfect. Don’t ruin that.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
But given that they were opening said discussion with a cheesy “Hello Wife!”, “Hello Husband!”, I wonder how much serious discussion they’d actually have gotten done here today anyway… :/
John
You’d be surprised. The lack of initial commitment could even cause them to stumble into uncomfortable territory unexpectedly since they won’t be on their guard.
Tom T.
Indeed. I suspect Dorothy has more requirements for a spouse than Walky realizes.
Buhzim
Iirc, she outright told him that once, that their relationship is just for fun and has no real future. Later she seemed to change her mind, which caused some problems when he revealed he liked the original plan and refused to even talk about love. It’s a good thing that Joyce interrupted them because as soon as they touch that subject again an ugly breakup is the most likely result.
Rutee
…she didn’t change her mind. She said she loved him. It’s on you if you can’t figure out how that makes sense.
Buhzim
She said they shouldn’t get too attached because this year at the university is (was?) just a stepping atone for her career and she wouldn’t stick around for long. Later on she says she loves him, expecting to hear the same and getting mad when he refuses and reminds her of the “this is just for fun” deal. I don’t see how this could be anything other than Dorothy changing her mind about what shr wanted out of their relationship.
Lord Stoneheart
And then her and Walky had a conversation about what love means. The relationship might mean more to her than “just for fun” like it did at the start but she seems to have accepted that it might still mean only that for Walky.
Spencer
Specifically, Dorothy acknowledges that she’s developing deeper feelings for Walky than what a “for fun” relationship would entail, and she’s trying to deal with that while staying the course.
Random832
Falling in love with someone you originally considered a “just for fun” relationship is a change of someone’s mind, even if it’s not, strictly speaking, something she has voluntary control over.
Rutee
….No, that’s the point, it isn’t. It means you’re interpreting a ‘just for fun’ relationship as one that has no love, not a relationship that is inherently temporary. If you can’t figure out how to make sense of that, it’s on you. Dotty clearly knows.
thejeff
It is however not surprising that when you’ve been told it’s a “just for fun” relationship and the other person suddenly confesses their love, you’ll be taken aback a bit. Especially if you’ve been holding back yourself to keep the inevitable pain of it ending from being too bad.
Interesting to think how it would play if the case was reversed and it was the other partner who’d brought up love to the one who’d set out the “just for fun” limits. (Obviously wouldn’t work with Dorothy & Walky, given their personalities, but hypothetically…)
Buhzim
I can’t say I can imagine a no strings attached relationship that involves mutual declarations of love, no. It’s one or the other, if you expect a genuine “I love you too” back then you clearly want more than a little fun. Otherwise why would Dorothy get upset when Walky casually replied “yeah me too” and added that it was “just a bunch of words” to him? It was her idea to not get too involved since she’s leaving soon, so everything is working as intended, right? Right?
And it doesn’t have to involve love. If we’re coworkers and you tell me that we should keep our relationship strictly to a professional level, then ask me to be your best man at your marriage, I’m gonna wonder too. Do you want to be my friend or not?
Disloyal Subject
Her parents had a point when tbey said that sometimes ‘just for fun’ ends up being what you want in the long haul. I think they could make it work; Walky is a force to be reckoned with when be puts his mind to something, and Dorothy is about as goal-oriented as a person can get.
I think the assignment would have been good for their relationship’s growth. Maybe they’ll discuss it after class.
Kryss LaBryn
“So, I’ll be making all the money with my sweet trampoline park; and you can do all the dishes an’ stuff.”
“Walky, I will be working too. You can do the dishes.”
“Nuh uh! You’re the wife. Remember? We said that, just now?”
I may need more popcorn for this…
saltchocolate
But Walky has shown on multiple occasions that he truly believes Dorothy will become president. I don’t see this kind of exchange at all.
The problem is more likely to revolve around unrealistic (or just competing) notions about what’s possible within that framework.
Walky: So we should have a couple of kids while we’re young. I want to be a dad while I’m still cool.
Dorothy: *We* can’t have kids while *I’m* in law school and running my early career local campaigns.
Walky: but you have to have kids for the publicity shots! And a dog! All the candidates have them! Look at Hillary!
Dorothy: I don’t plan to wait to run for office until I’m in my 70s…
Etc. etc.
DarkoNeko
“We’ll be rich enough to hire people to do the dishes”
Bladeglory