Heteronormativity In Modern Culture

Heterosexism, according to Warren J. Blumenfeld, is the system of advantages given to heterosexuals based on the social construct of gender roles and heterosexual norms, while marginalizing and oppressing homosexuals and others who do not fit into the heterosexual culture (373). The enforcement of this system is known as heteronormality. This is seen in the binary system, which is a social construct that divides people into different strictly bordered categories organized by “social roles, values, stereotypes, and behavioral and attitudinal imperatives, expressions, and expectations” (Blumenfeld 373). Those who stick to the binary system, maintain power and privilege. People who may live in the binary system, but also intentionally

In society, heterosexuality is a principal method of organizing institutions and regulating individual behavior. A culture based on ideas of heterosexuality values relationships that are between men and women; as a result, sexual contact occurring between same sex individuals is seen as deviant and labeled as homosexual. In her book, Ward explains how straight white men can have sex with other white men while retaining their heterosexuality in addition to gaining a masculine appeal. Ingraham and Namaste’s discussion of heteronormativity, heterogenders, and supplementarity aids in understanding why straight white men are not labeled as homosexual and how this functions to reproduce inequalities based on race, gender, and sexuality.

This paper will continue on, researching the societal change/acceptance in the gay and lesbian community as no longer being unorthodox and with the stigma coming from the gay community itself.

From the moment a child is born, the society in which they are born into begins to teach the child what is normal, and what is not. If the aforementioned child has a vagina, they will be labeled a girl and assumed to be heterosexual, and the same principle applies if the child has a penis. Yet the human world is not as simple as this established gender binary. For example, there are people who identify with a gender other than the sex assigned at birth.1 There are also people who are not sexually attracted strictly to the opposite gender, or at all. Such diversions from societal normality are more often than not greeted with opposition, as what is considered normal is also deemed right. The LGBT community has had to deal with fierce societal

First, let’s start with the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. This community is amazing, and I’m glad that more and more people are accepting them today. Unfortunately, there are still individuals who stand for homophobia. A homophobe is a person with an extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people. A man or woman, who likes their own gender, identifies as another or none at all can be a victim of homophobia. Homophobia tends to be more prevalent among men than women. In the minds of many people, gay men are inherently not masculine. That is of course, completely false. Sadly, society projects an image of what is acceptable to be if you are a man, gay not being one of them. In the eyes of many, males are not supposed to act feminine. Males aren’t allowed to do things like wear feminine clothing or makeup, or act feminine to say the least. Obviously, being a man is accepted and promoted in our society. Women who are more masculine or present themselves as men sometimes have an easier time than men who present themselves as women. That's because what is projected to society is that to be male is to be powerful and to be female is not. In my opinion, the stereotypes when it comes to gender roles are horrible. Men and women should be able to express themselves without the fear of getting judged or

Americans live in a society that seems constantly plagued by various types of discrimination. For instance, ableism, classism, and sizeism are a few examples of the sorts of systematic discriminations that Americans face every day. However, as of late, one of the most prevalent forms that targets homosexual minorities is Heterosexist discrimination. Heterosexism is defined as the discrimination or prejudice against homosexuals (“Heterosexism”). In addition to being prejudiced and discriminatory, Heterosexism is more often than not paired with the idea that heterosexuality is the normal sexual orientation, and therefore superior.

There seems to be a prevalent belief among queer theorists that there exists an archetype of the “ideal queer.” This person is subversive in everything that they do, and disrupts norms in all ways. Obviously, this ideal is different from dominant society’s view of the ideal queer - a person who keeps their identity to themself, is not “outwardly queer,” holds some type of stable corporate job, is “just like the rest of us” in all other aspects of being, and is decidedly non-radical. Of course, neither of these ideals are representative of the reality of LGBT individuals. Gender and sexual expression is infinitely varied, and cannot be boxed into categories which are palatable to one group or another. LGBT individuals who chose to marry or

Sexual orientationism is best described as discrimination or prejudice against homosexuals on the assumption that heterosexuality is the dominant, or normal, sexual orientation. Within society there are many barriers, assumptions, and stigmas placed upon the queer community, numerous of which steam from this heterosexist stance that has become the dominant ideology. This stance has historical significance in trauma, and oppression of those within the sexual minority, and how this can play on representation.

In society, there is often an invisible privilege associated with heterosexuality (Adams, 2010). For an example, heterosexual couples can walk down the street with their partner without fear of being verbally or physically attacked. This is a right that most heterosexual people don’t consider because they have never been forced to question their attraction, or love for the opposite gender, since this behavior is viewed by society as “natural” or a “normal” part being part of being a women or a man. However, the opposite is true for LGB individuals, these feelings of love or attraction for members of the same sex are often questioned by family, friends, religious and government organizations and societal norms. Like all other forms of oppression, heterosexism operates on multiple levels.

A number of individuals who are not directly involved in the Queer community are rarely exposed to the discrimination of other subcultures from the majority (i.e. white, gay males). As a result of this, people are led to assume

Numerous straight men appear to think homosexual women exist purely for their pleasure and entertainment. Making the sexuality of those women seem less valid or not valid at all. Not only must women have to deal with this, but in the article “Who’s the Man?” published by The Guardian the gender divide people in same-sex relationships face is discussed. Usually, when there is a same-sex relationship the question many people over the years ask is “Who is the man in the relationship?” that question referring to who is the more masculine role or is in more control. This is often more prominent in female same-sex relationships. Both articles appear to show that there is an inequality in the stereotypes and mistreatment men and women of the LGBT+ community, but women are affected more than men. This is simply not true; men and women face the same inequality when it comes to their sexual orientation. Bros over Hos hints at the idea that men must act or look a certain way and they’ll be considered a homosexual. While young men were asked, what would suggest a man is a homosexual, they responded with: “He’s

The heterosexual imaginary is immensely ingrained in our everyday experience that most people, including feminist sociologists, has become inclined to conceptualize and theorize based around the heteronormative. The heterosexual imaginary acts as an invisible framework at play that structures our thinking processes and in which constructs our social identity. For instance, the inquiry of a survey taker’s marital status in most social science surveys come to show that our recognized and appropriate social identity is formed around heterosexuality. That is, any deviation from this heterosexual norm would be considered abnormal and be marginalized. To a minimal extent, this focus has served the interests of women because of the lack of activism

In Martin and Kazyak’s article, the authors point out how children’s movies, which are very accessible and woven into children’s play and learning, are one of the ways society teaches heteronormativity to young people. They do this through a research study which examined the sexual and hetero romantic content in children’s G-rated films that were popular and came out in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The authors discovered two main themes from this study. The first theme is that children’s movies create heteronormativity through portraying hetero romantic love as special and powerful, which can be seen in the dramatization of characters ‘falling in love’ and the portrayal of a romantic relationships being the ‘most important’ (Martin and Kayak,

Queer theory questions creations of normal and divergent, insider, and outsider.2 Queer theorists analyse a situation or a text to determine the relationship between sexuality, power and gender. Queer theory challenges basic tropes used to organize our society and our language: even words are gendered, and through that gendering an elliptical view of the hierarchy of society, and presumption of what is male and what is female, shines through. Queer theory rejects such binary distinctions as arbitrarily determined and defined by those with social power. It works to deconstruct these binaries, particularly the homosexual/heterosexual binary.4

Gender and sexual orientation is a topic that has been and still today is not talked about in such a way it should be because of how society has chosen to structure and control it. Social stratification is a system in which groups of people are divided up into layers according to their relative privileges (power, property, and prestige). It’s a way of ranking large groups of people into a hierarchy according to their relative privileges (Vela-McConnell 2016). People, who deviate from the norm of the “accepted” gender and sexual orientation that society has placed upon us, are stratified below the norm of a dominating binary gender and sexual orientation. People who are queer face the struggle of mistreatment and an unaccepting society that has been socialized to see and act on gender and sexual orientation to being a dualistic system.