Heteronormativity

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Heteronormativity describes a worldview that postulates heterosexuality as a social norm . It is based on a binary gender order in which anatomical / biological gender is equated with gender identity , gender role and sexual orientation . The heteronormative gender model is based on a dual division into men and women , whereby it is taken for granted that heterosexual development is envisaged and thus corresponds to "normal" behavior - other aspects of human sexuality are often pathologized . This allows homophobia and other forms of social enmity associated.

The concept of heteronormativity is central to queer theory , which questions the naturalization and privilege of heterosexuality and bisexuality.

etymology

The English term heteronormativity was coined in 1991 by Michael Warner in his article Introduction: Fear of a Queer Planet to describe a system of behaviors and social expectations built around the idea that everyone is or should be heterosexual and all relationships and all families follow this model. The basis of the concept lies in Gayle Rubin's thoughts on the sex / gender system and in Adrienne Rich's thoughts on compulsory heterosexuality from 1980.

The German term has been used since 1995 at the latest.

system

In heteronormative societies, a normative primacy is derived from the biologically predominant bisexual order and the associated rejection of the difference between "sex and gender " for all those people who strive for an opposite-sex partnership or who already live in one, i.e. who live or want to live heterosexually . Behavioral patterns that deviate from this are discredited and labeled as unnatural.

The heteronormativity thus permeates all essential social and cultural areas, as well as the subjects themselves. The healthy physicality is defined heterosexually, also when considering and describing other cultures. These approaches often serve to delegitimize other forms of healthy sexual development with equal rights (such as homosexuality ) and are often used as a reason to glorify and play down violence or systematic discrimination against the antagonized population groups.

Judith Butler coined the term heterosexual matrix for the associated harmonization of biological anatomy , gender and heterosexuality, which characterizes the gender discourse performatively .

Heteronormative gender matrix
  Sexual characteristics Gender identity behavior Sexual orientation
Women Female Female Female androphil (desire male partners)
Men male male male gynophile (desire female partners)

Practical implications

The equation of biological gender, gender identity, gender role and sexual orientation has in practice considerable effects for those people who do not agree in all of these categories.

In practice, a heteronormative society assumes that an unspecified individual of a certain gender will or should show certain behaviors. Upbringing is also interpreted accordingly.

Boys, for example, are expected to be interested in girls from a certain age onwards and to take on otherwise stereotypically male role models . Therefore, boys are often only given role models that correspond to social expectations. This often goes hand in hand with a glorification and normalization of machismo . Homosexual boys who are not interested in girls are often disciplined or even attacked. Other deviations too, e.g. B. Boys who want to play with dolls are seen as undesirable and in need of correction.

This leads to the fact that those affected experience their own feelings as deviating from the expectations of society, often combined with a feeling of otherness and loneliness. For those affected, an active intellectual step is necessary in order to emancipate themselves from social expectations (see also coming out ).

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Shirley R. Steinberg: Diversity and Multiculturalism: A Reader . Peter Lang, April 1, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4331-0345-2 , pp. 229-230 (accessed September 10, 2012).
  2. Bettina Kleiner: Heteronormativity . In: Gender Glossary . 2016, urn : nbn: de: bsz: 15-qucosa-220314 .
  3. Michael Warner: Introduction: Fear of a Queer Planet. In: Social Text; 9 (4 [29]), 1991, pp. 3-17.
  4. Elizabeth J. Meyer: Gender and Sexual Diversity in Schools (=  Explorations of Educational Purpose, Volume 10). Springer, 2010, ISBN 90-481-8558-0 , p. 143 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  5. ^ Adrienne Rich: Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence. In: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1980, 5, pp. 631-660.
  6. Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung, Volume 8, F. Enke, 1995, p. 233 (with direct reference to Warner).
  7. Article “Heteronormativity” at the Gender Institute Bremen. Retrieved June 20, 2018 .
  8. ^ Hannelore Bublitz : Gender. In: Hermann Korte , Bernhard Schäfers (Ed.): Introduction to the main terms of sociology. 8th edition. Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 87–106, here: p. 99.