Swirling is not a new thing to the world. Commonly referred to as interracial relationships, swirling is simply the act of two individuals of different ethnic backgrounds joining together in a romantic relationship. It’s one of my favorite things, and in case you didn’t know, it has a huge following and fan base.
Swirling came about as a popular term to refer to black and white couples. It is meant to describe a relationship so beautifully blended and so sweet that it resembles a vanilla and chocolate ice cream cone. It was used to replace the more frequently used term “Jungle Fever” which is actually quite offensive to some groups of people.
Although swirling was originally used to describe black and white couples, the term has expanded with society and now encompasses any form of interracial dating. Although it is usually used in reference to couples where there is an obvious skin tone contrast, it can be used for any couple celebrating and enjoying each other’s delicious differences. Another very popular combination in the swirl world aside from the most popular is Asian and Black swirls.
Listen, I would only talk about this if it was really popular and it is. Now, if you’ve gotten this far and you are thinking to yourself, “Hmm, this sounds pretty interesting, I think I’ll check it out,” BEWARE: You will see the photos of these couples, you will find them incredibly cute, you will want to know more about them and their relationship, you will stumble upon an entire YouTube channel where all this couple talks about is their swirly goodness, you will watch all of their videos, you will then want a swirl relationship for yourself. That is the cycle and I am not lying to you. Don’t believe me? Try it.
The following for swirling is massive; and like I said before, it is addictive. Think of your favorite social media site. Mine is Instagram. Now go to your social media site of choice and type one of these hashtags into the search engine: #swirl #bwwm #bmww #swirllove #ambw #swirlmovement Those are just a few. Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, Tumblr. These are the homes to worlds most divine swirl couples.
For example, one of my favorite swirl couples has a YouTube channel called “The Nive Nulls.” They have a weekly vlog where they literally just talk about their lives and their family. These are regular folks, with regular lives and some of their vlogs have nearly 100,000 views. That’s just one swirl YouTube couple that I have mentioned, but there are actually 1,000+ swirling YouTubers out there. And that is just YouTube; it doesn’t include all couples who are popular on other social media outlets. So what is it about these couples that is so fascinating? I’ll tell you.
1. They are gorgeous. Contrasting skin tones look so lovely together. The juxtaposition is oh-so appealing.
2. They are funny. Most couples are super cute and their cute coupliness is pretty funny to watch.
3. They are interesting. It’s really interesting to watch two people with sometimes extremely different backgrounds come together and learn to celebrate and bond over their unique differences.
4. Many of these swirl couples eventually have swirl babies. The cuteness is insane.
5. They embody the beautiful global intercultural progress that our world is made of today.
See how good swirling sounds? Swirling is fun! I’m sure all this talk of swirling is making you want to go outside right now and find your perfect swirl match so I’m gonna help you out with a few tips to remember.
1. Swirling is not a fetish. Don’t go out and hunt down someone of a different ethnicity to date just because you’ve heard some preconceived notions and stereotypes about their ethnic group. That’s not cool and it’s super objectifying.
2. Swirling is a lot more common than you may think. “Among opposite-sex married couples, one in 10 (5.4 million couples) are interracial…and 21% of same-sex couples were mixed.” (as of a 2010 Census). And that’s just USA data, imagine the global statistics.
3. Swirling is for anyone who is open to making romantic connections with another person outside of their ethnic or racial group. If you decide to go down the swirl path, it doesn’t mean that you should stop being open to dating people who are a part of your ethnic or racial group. You should date whoever you click with and are attracted to. Being a part of the swirl movement just means that you don’t and won’t let skin color barriers, culture barriers or ethnic barriers limit your dating options.
4. Swirling requires a *forget the haters* mentality. Mostly people are cool, but every now and then there will be people out there who aren’t cool with swirly goodness, but that’s ’cause they’re jealous and ignorant. If you are prepared to be one half of a yummy swirl then you will have to remember that your relationship is awesome despite what some people have to say about it.
Now that you are enlightened and informed, Happy Swirling, may the odds be ever in your favor. (They Will Be.)
Beyond Black and White and Interracial Dating Central are a couple of websites meant for creating swirl relationships.