The editors of The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader have made an important contribution to the rapidly growing field of lesbian/gay studies with their compilation of forty-two influential essays. These readings cut across many disciplines, including philosophy, history, African American studies, and sociology. They illustrate how wide the spectrum of discussion is and illustrate that the topic is not limited to lesbians, gays, or bisexuals.

The reader features a variety of classic essays, such as those written by Adrienne Rich, Gayle Rubin, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Stuart Hall. Adrienne Rich's "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," originally written in 1980, is an example of a work that has provoked discussion for over ten years. Rich argues that "heterosexuality, like motherhood, needs to be recognized and studied as a political institution" (p. 232). Accompanied by Rich's 1982 preface and 1986 afterward, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" exemplifies how an influential essay becomes part of an ongoing debate.

David Halperin, a coeditor of The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, makes a fascinating argument in his own essay, "Is There a History of Sexuality?" which addresses misguided discussions of sex as a bodily function, an issue that is void of "history and culture" (p. 416). Using Robert Padgug's classic essay, "Sexual Matters: On Conceptualizing Sexuality in History" (1979), Halperin draws examples from ancient Greece to reveal how "erotic desires and sexual object-choices in antiquity were generally not determined by a typology of anatomical sexes (male versus female), but rather by the social articulation of power (superordinate versus subordinate)" (p. 420).

Halperin's historical analysis complements well Sasha Torres's analysis of contemporary mainstream television programming. In "Television/Feminism: HeartBeat and Prime Time Lesbianism," Torres aptly develops an argument about how television has a "tendency to use feminism and lesbianism as stand-ins for each other" (p. 177). Linking feminism with lesbianism, in effect, provides the television industry with images of "strong women" — identified as young, middle- and upper-middle-class urban women — that advertisers "covet" (p. 178).

Despite their efforts to be comprehensive, the editors acknowledge that they have not included some distinguished, older works from authors such as Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Edward Carpenter, Jeannette Foster, and Alfred Kinsey. Nevertheless, the editors also include a bibliographical essay that can be used as a guide to the field as a whole. The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the topic of sexual nonconformity.

M.S.