This book examines life trajectories among three categories of women living beyond the bounds of heteronormativity in Jakarta and Delhi: women who have lost their husbands, either through divorce or death, sex workers, and young, urban lesbians. The public arena of sexual politics, in which the media play an important role, is explored in both cities. By charting the lives of women who live beyond the boundaries of the heteronormative, commonalities are revealed, boundaries and regulatory mechanisms in the context of symbolic violence are delineated, and the issue of the struggle for sexual rights for marginalized groups, and their open rebellion, brought to the fore. At the heart of the book lies elaboration of the ways Asian families are constructed: their social, economic, sexual, and religious agency, and how these engage with state-led values.