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This article reports that it is the fashion these days for popular writers to exploit the subject of sex, due to the intrinsic interest it holds. This article uses the scientific frame of reference to analyze the subject of sex viewed in cross-cultural perspective. Sex is a sensitive phenomenon, not only in the public view, but also as a research focus for pointing up differences across cultures. This latter fact was a major consideration in selecting it as the substantive side of a project which sought to compare normative systems. The focus of this article is on the contemporary sex norms of Scandinavia and the U.S. The sex norms of Denmark are known to be highly permissive; those of Midwestern U.S., moderately restrictive; and those of Mormon Country, highly restrictive. In Denmark, which is broadly typical of all of Scandinavia, sexual intercourse during the engagement is a tradition that goes back three or four centuries at least, and in recent years the practice has spread to include the "going steady" relationship; now as earlier, many Danes tend to wait for pregnancy before going ahead with the wedding.