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Traces the history of sexual theory in three historical phases: (1) sexology & psychoanalysis in the early 20th century; (2) sociological, social-constructionist approaches developed in the 1960s; & (3) poststructuralist discourse analysis in the 1970s & 1980s. It is suggested that social-constructionist approaches to sexuality reacted to the explicit essentialism present in the early drive theory of sexological & psychoanalytic work. However, while offering a challenge to the biological & psychological determinism of drive theory, it left open the question of how desire comes to be constituted within the individual. It therefore has been unable to provide answers as to why heterosexual hegemony continues to persist at the individual level. From a poststructuralist perspective, the best efforts to overcome these deficiencies are described as blendings of sociological & cultural analysis that combine insights of psychoanalysis, symbolic interactionism, & discourse analysis to focus on the cultural scenarios that make sexual practices possible in culture. It is argued that this multilevel model offers the most promising avenue for future research in this field. 53 References. D. M. Smith