Contexts

Features

Is Hooking Up Bad For Young Women?

“Hookup culture” is in the crossfire, but is casual college sex really so bad? As it turns out, women experience pleasures and pitfalls in both hookups and relationships.

Sex, Love, and Autonomy in the Teenage Sleepover

Dutch parents seem to normalize teen sexuality, while American parents dramatize it; these attitudes reflect differing cultures of independence and control.

Straight Girls Kissing

The phenomenon of straight women kissing each other—particularly on campuses — might be about performance and attention, explorations of sexuality, or even a new era of "heteroflexibility."

Our Animals, Ourselves

Our relationships with animals reveal underlying conceptions of the social order, unmasking our feelings about fellow humans and modern life.

Sebastião Salgado, Behind the Lens

Brazilian-born photographer Sebastião Salgado discusses the work and world- view that earned him the 2010 ASA Award for Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues.

Memory, Materiality, and the Apartheid Past

The redevelopment of South Africa's Old Fort Prison shows how preservation efforts require opportunity and resources in addition to a collective will to remember.