Despite increasing interest in gendered sexuality over the life course, a comprehensive conceptual model, applicable to all aspects of sexual life and incorporating recent developments in life course sociology, feminist theory, and sexuality studies, has yet to be elaborated. The model presented here posits that sexual beliefs and behaviors result from individuals’ lifelong accumulation of adva...

This article describes male adolescents' affective history and reasons for initiating or postponing sexual activity, using interviews with 184 males ages 15 to 19 and residing in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2002. Factors for sexual debut included physical attraction, curiosity, and the desire to lose their virginity, suggesting a profile similar to the male social role. Most of the virgin...

A heterosexual community can be analyzed as a marketplace in which men seek to acquire sex from women by offering other resources in exchange. Societies will therefore define gender roles as if women are sellers and men buyers of sex. Societies will endow female sexuality, but not male sexuality, with value (as in virginity, fidelity, chastity). The sexual activities of different couples are lo...