A Discussion of Heterosexism in Modern Day America

The Invisible Option

There is no doubt in my mind that the culture we live in still strongly struggles to enforce and reinforce heteronormative values. This enforcement goes beyond mere understanding of the fact that, statistically speaking, most people identify as heterosexual and moves into an expectation that all people probably should be heterosexual. The factors and behaviors in society that reinforce this belief are many, varied and subtle.

For the sake of this article, I will discuss just a few of these.

I. The exclusivity of heterosexual references in culture

It can happen in things as simple as the words we associate with romance; we say "husbands and wives," instead of gender-neutral choices like, "spouses" or "partners." Popular men's and women's magazines, such as "Maxim" or "Cosmopolitan," refer to matters of romance exclusively in terms of the opposite sex. People are assumed to be straight unless they are specifically outed or admitted as GLBT. "Relationship" sections of most mainstream bookstores are filled with books that only address the issues in terms of man/woman relationship, giving not so much as a nod to same sex couples. Even little things like ceramic salt shakers and "his" and "hers" towels reinforce the idea that heterosexual orientation is the only legitimate sexual orientation.

Of course, it's difficult to go shopping when you're a member of any group in the minority. To a certain extent, the predominance of heterosexuality in media and culture is an expected and understandable phenomenon. Anyone who's left-handed, vegetarian, non-Christian, non-white, has a disability, speaks a foreign language as their first, has an unusual hobby or esoteric area of interest or livelihood, or anyone who has ever shopped for clothes to fit a body shape or size that is outside the norm has experienced the frustration of trying to make her way in a world that doesn't seem to recognize her existence.