Young women kissing—especially on college campuses—grabs male and media attention alike, but these kisses don’t mean that the women involved are lesbians. Interviews with college age women reveal the complexity and fluidity of female sexuality.
A few video clips referenced in the article:
Amy Schalet is in the sociology department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of Not Under My Proof: Parents, Teens, and the Culture of Sex.
Parents in the United States and the Netherlands take very different approaches to adolescent sexuality. While religion and economics play a role, a closer look at the two countries reveals different cultures of independence and control that shape attitudes toward teen sex. Implications are also discussed.
Read more by Amy Schalet in The Washington Post, Mother Talkers, and on ACT for Youth (PDF).
Also check out Amy Schalet's "Must We Fear Adolescent Sexuality" (PDF), named Medscape General Medicine's best article on Women's Health in 2004.
Pepper Schwartz is a sociologist at the University of Washington. She is one of America's leading experts in sexuality and society.
From her own memoir on dating between ages 55 and 60 to social networking, Pepper Schwartz discusses what we do and don’t know about sex over the life course. Along the way, she offers advice for sociologists hoping to engage public audiences.
Deborah Carr is Contexts' Trends editor. She teachers sociology at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on the sociology of the life course, aging, social psychology, and gender.
High profile tales of marital infidelity may give the impression that cheating is on the rise. Young people do have more flexible views on infidelity than older cohorts, but survey data reveals that attitudes toward infidelity have become more negative and rates of cheating have remained stable.
Kathleen E. Hull is in the department of sociology at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of Same-Sex Marriage: The Cultural Politics of Love and Law.
Ann Meier is in the department of sociology at the University of Minnesota. She studies the form, character, and consequences of adolescent relationships.
Tim Ortyl is a Ph.D. student in the sociology department at the University of Minnesota and a member of the Contexts graduate student editorial board. He studies sexuality, gender, and nontraditional families in contemporary American society.
American norms about love and marriage are in transition. The paradoxical embrace of two contradictory American ideals- individualism and commitment-lead Americans to place a high value on lifelong marriage while also wanting the option of an exit.
Gwen Sharp is in the department of social sciences at Nevada State College. She is co-founder of Sociological Images.
Lisa Wade is in the sociology department at Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA. She is a co-founder of Sociological Images.
The blog Sociological Images has truly struck a chord, garnering hundreds of thousands of hits a month — and, now, a regular feature in Contexts. This inaugural installment looks at the strange intersection of food and sex in advertising.
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