The small Northern European kingdom has left its mark on history through a variety of common names. "Swedish wall", "buffet", "Swedish family" - these phrases are firmly rooted in the Russian language, which is quite surprising, because the Swedes themselves are not familiar with these concepts.
Swedish family
The Swedish family is the colloquial name for one of the forms of polyamory, which allows a person to have multiple love relationships with the consent and approval of all participants in such a relationship. In practice, this implies cohabitation of several people of different sexes, for example, one man and two women (or vice versa).
It should be noted right away that this form of relationship does not necessarily imply group sex. This is a slightly different concept that has a scientific name - triolism. Relationships in a Swedish family can be very different - banal affection, friendship, platonic love, or rivalry.
Swedish families are not as rare as it might seem at first glance. This form of human relationships is widely represented in various works of literature and cinema. The most famous films: "Dreamers" dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, The Third Meshchanskaya dir. Abram Roma, Jules and Jim, dir. Francois Truffaut.
By the way, such a designation as "Swedish family" is found only in Russia and some other states of the post-Soviet space. In most European countries, the term is used, which literally translated from French means housekeeping for three.
The birth of a stereotype
Where this term came from in the conservative Soviet Union is not known for certain, but in the 70s of the last century, the concept of "Swedish family" was the main synonym for Sweden throughout the USSR. There was a stereotype that in this mysterious Scandinavian country, the cohabitation of several couples is quite a common thing.
Perhaps the whole point is in the wave of the sexual revolution that has reached the union and rumors about the representatives of the left Swedish youth, who in those years did not differ in puritanical behavior and behaved very frivolously. Scandinavian hippies did not recognize any family values or moral principles. Some of them really lived in groups, like communes, promoting free love. In the same years, the mega-popular Swedish music group ABBA, consisting of 2 married couples, appeared on TV screens. They sang about love so sweetly that Soviet citizens could not help but believe them.
Of course, it is difficult to call the Swedes conservatives in an intimate sense. It is the only country in the world where sexual literacy began to be taught in schools in the early 1950s. Communication of spouses after divorces and joint pastime of "new" and "old" families for the liberated Swedes is a common thing. But it would be a great exaggeration to say that in terms of building family relations, they are somehow different from other Europeans.
