Heterosexism Totally Explained

Everything about Heterosexism totally explained

Heterosexism is the presumption that everyone is heterosexual and/or the belief that heterosexual people are naturally superior to homosexual and bisexual people. Heterosexism also encompasses discrimination and prejudice in favor of heterosexual people over gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, and transgender people. As a predisposition toward heterosexuals and heterosexuality, heterosexism has been described as being "encoded into and characteristic of the major social, cultural, and economic institutions of our society."
Heterosexism thus includes the underlying beliefs and attitudes of such preference. Stemming from the essentialist cultural notion that maleness-masculinity and femaleness-femininity are complementary, heterosexism isn't limited to heterosexuals; people of any sexual orientation, including gay men, lesbians or bisexuals, can hold heterosexist beliefs.

Background

Etymology and usage

The term heterocentrism or heterosexualism may be equivalent to heterosexism . Although the well-established term heterosexism is often explained as a coinage modeled on sexism, the derivation of its meaning points more to (1.) heterosex~~ual~~ + -ism than (2.) hetero- + sexism. In fact, the portmanteau word heterosexualism has been proposed as a near equivalent.
Given this lack of semantic transparency, researchers, outreach workers, critical theorists and LGBT activists have proposed and use terms such as institutionalized homophobia, state(-sponsored) homophobia, sexual prejudice, anti-gay bigotry, straight privilege, The Straight Mind (a collection of essays by French writer Monique Wittig), heterosexual bias or the much lesser known terms heterocentrism, homonegativity, and from gender theory and queer theory, heteronormativity.
In everyday speech and writing, however, heterosexism is commonly confused with or eclipsed by the word homophobia, whose key meaning is antipathy towards gay men and lesbians.

Parallels and intersections

The concept of heterosexism is similar to the concepts of racism and white privilege. All of these ideas promote privilege for dominating groups within a given society. On the one hand, racism against, for example, non-white people such as black, asian, or indigenous people, promotes privilege for white people as a group. On the other hand, heterosexism promotes privilege for the collectivity of heterosexual people (as individuals or couples) as well as some "straight-acting" gay men, lesbians, and bisexual people, who, in other words, are thought to project themselves as or be perceived as heterosexual. By analogy, this latter heterosexual privilege has often been called "straight privilege".
What's more, heterosexism can intersect with racism by further emphasizing differences among arbitrary groups of people. For example, heterosexism can compound the effects of racism by:

promoting injustices towards a person already facing injustices because of their race and
establishing social hierarchies that allow one group more privilege than other groups.

Likewise, racism can allow LGBT people to be subjected to additional discrimination or violence if they belong to or are considered a part of a socially devalued racial category. Some of the privileges afforded to people falling into the categories of white people and (perceived) heterosexuals include, but are not limited to, social acceptance, prestige, freedom from negative stereotypes, and the comfort of being within the norm and thereby not being marginalized or viewed as different.

Heterosexism as a set of beliefs and attitudes

ť See also: Religion and homosexuality, Homosexuality and psychology, Sexual orientation and medicine, and Social attitudes toward homosexuality

Heterosexism as a set of beliefs and attitudes relies on a core tenet according to which homosexuality and bisexuality don't normally exist and, as such, constitute illnesses or deviant behaviors. Within a heterosexist ideology or mindset, the well-established concept of sexual orientation is rejected. A set of more nuanced heterosexist views, which some may consider faith, dogma, universal truths, appeals to authority, or popular beliefs, but others consider to be conventional wisdom or sociobiological knowledge can include, among others, the following:

A person can choose his or her sexual “preference” and, as a result, homosexuality is a lifestyle choice or a current fad.

Homosexuality being wrong, ungodly, and against nature, it's therefore a sin, evil or subhuman.

Views identical or akin to Anita Bryant's notorious statement during her Save Our Children campaign: ť "As a mother, I know that homosexuals can't biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children."

Because of their lifestyle, homosexuals don't have families with children, so they undermine the survival of the human race. (natalism) As well as comprising attitudes held by an individual or a social group, heterosexism can also exist as the expression of attitudes within an institution. As a result, schools, hospitals, and correctional facilities can act as a showcase for heterosexist attitudes in various ways. First, schools may implement these attitudes and ideas through unequal and inconsistent disciplinary actions. One such example is meting out harsher punishment to a same-sex couple violating the school ground rules while allowing a heterosexual couple to pass with an easier and more subtle disciplinary action for an equal or identical violation. Also, hospitals may limit patient visiting only to immediate family, for example relatives, and “exclude same sex partners”. Lastly, jails and prisons may reflect heterosexist attitudes by denying the existence of MSM and WSW among the incarcerated or prohibiting safer sex education and the distribution of condoms.

Heterosexism as discrimination

Explicit or open discrimination

This type of heterosexism includes anti-gay laws, harassment based on sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation; negative stereotyping, discriminatory language and discourse, and other forms of discrimination against gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals such as:

Hate speech, terms of disparagement, hate mail, death threats, Murder Music

Scapegoating, mobbing, witch-hunts, moral panic; using gay men and homosexuality as a folk devil for the AIDS pandemic.

Negative portrayals or stereotypes of gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals solely as villains, the butt of jokes, objects of curiosity. This can occur on television and in movies as well as in jokes between friends or among co-workers.

Using the gay panic defense in assault or murder cases.

Sodomy laws when enforced almost exclusively against consenting, adult, same-sex partners. See also: Bowers v. Hardwick and Lawrence v. Texas

In some countries where homosexuality is criminalized, such as Sudan, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, offenders may receive the maximum sentence of capital punishment. See also: Paragraph 175

Discrepancies in age of consent laws in which legal sexual activity between members of the same sex is set at a higher age than that for opposite-sex partners. See also: Morris v. The United Kingdom

“marriage protection acts” or “defense of marriage acts” that ban same-sex marriage;

Adoption bans against either same-sex couples or gay, lesbian, or bisexual individuals. See also: LGBT adoption

Creating parallel institutions to marriage, such civil unions, or opening them to gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals only as stopgap measures to avoid granting same-sex couples the privileges, protection, respect, and symbolism that only a legally and socially accepted marriage can confer.

Proposals or legislation to prohibit equal rights protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation, particularly with regard to health care, housing, and employment.

Barring gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals from serving in the armed forces or from working in the education field; this can include policies such as the U.S. military’s “Don't ask, don't tell” policy or Lech Kaczyński and other conservative Polish politicians’ stance to exclude gay men and lesbians from entering the teaching profession. See also: LGBT rights in Poland

Organized opposition to equal rights for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals (LGBT rights) and same-sex couples; labeling such equal rights and privileges as "special rights" or the "Gay Agenda";

Referring to a suspected criminal's homosexuality or bisexuality when in analogous situations there's no mention of a suspect's heterosexuality.

Implicit or hidden discrimination

This form of heterosexism operates through invisibility, underrepresentation, and erasure

. It includes:

Lack of portraying LGBT people in advertising to the general public;

Censorship of LGBT characters, themes, and issues in works of art, literature, entertainment; see also "Sugar Time" episode of Postcards from Buster

Exclusion of historical and political figures’ and celebrities’ homosexuality or bisexuality, on equal terms with homosexuality; their portrayal as heterosexuals;

Complete avoidance of mentioning these people and their positive contributions particularly in news media;

In the context of sex education or professional advice, referring only to opposite-sex partners when discussing female or male sexual attraction and activity;

Total silence on at school or work or absence of their discussion in a positive light;

Implementation and use of content-control software (censorware) to filter out information and websites that focus on LGBT topics and issues;

Postal censorship and border control or customs seizure of publications deemed obscene solely on the basis of them containing LGBT-related material even when they contain no erotic or pornographic material; see also Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium

Work environments that tacitly require gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals not to reveal their sexual orientation via discussion of their relationship status while heterosexuals can discuss their relationships and marital status freely;

At public libraries or bookstores: rejection, removal or destruction of LGBT-themed books (for example Jenny lives with Eric and Martin), films, and posters;

Refusal to include LGBT parented families at school events or to represent such family diversity in school curricula; see also anti-bias curriculum;

Coercive or forced sex reassignment surgery on gay men and lesbians. For example, many Iranian gay men and lesbians must turn to sex-reassignment surgery as a strategy to avoid persecution and a death sentence; transsexuality and being transgender are not outright forbidden in the Qu'ran. See also: LGBT rights in Iran

Forced disappearance, damnatio memoriae, ostracism, shunning, and other forms of social rejection geared towards making LGBT people personae non gratae.

Effects of heterosexism

The main effect of heterosexism is the marginalization of gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals within society. Heterosexism has led to stigmatization and persecution of not only these people but also those of other sexual diversity such as transgender, and transsexual people. Along with violence against LGBT people, homophobia, lesbophobia, and internalized homophobia, heterosexism continues to be a significant social reality that compels people to conceal their homosexual or bisexual orientation, or metaphorically, to remain in the closet in an effort to pass for heterosexual.

In culture

On singing duo Romanovsky and Phillips' album Be Political, Not Polite, the song "When Heterosexism Strikes" discusses possible actions in response to example cases of heterosexism. (lyrics

)

Further Information

Get more info on 'Heterosexism'.

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