The essays included here reflect differences in race, gender and class and demonstrate how different social groups experience different sets of social norms. Topics include gender and sex theory, identity, childhood and adolescent sexuality, the objectification of women, sexuality and religion, leisure and recreation, politics and social change and the possible future of sexual relationships.

Christine L. Williams is Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Gender Differences at Work: Women and Men in Nontraditional Occupations (1989) and Still a Man's World: Men Who Do "Women's Work" (1995), and is the editor of Doing 'Women's Work': Men in Nontraditional Occupations (1993) and Feminist Views of the Social Sciences (2000). She has served as chair of the Sex and Gender section of the American Sociological Association.

Arlene Stein teaches sociology at Rutgers University. She is the author of Sex and Sensibility: Stories of a Lesbian Generation (1997) and The Stranger Next Door: The Story of a Small Community' Battle over Sex, Faith, and Civil Rights (2001), and is the editor of Sisters, Sexperts, Queers: Beyond the Lesbian Nation (1993). She has served as chair of the Sexualities section of the American Sociological Association.