How Straight, White Men Make Gay Sex Straight
White, straight men having sex with other straight men works to reproduce heteronormativity. They do this by utilizing the ideology that heterosexuality is natural and homosexuality is the opposite and unnatural. They adjust their discourses around same-sex sex to categorize it as straight or gay, masculine or feminine, depending upon the situation. White, straight men engineer situations in which they can participate in same-sex activities under a heterosexual pretense. They do this by taking advantage of heteronormativity maintained by the heterosexual imaginary. Ward presents examples of this and uses terms like supplementarity, ideology, imaginary, heterogenders, and heteronormativity to explain …show more content…
The imaginary is what sublimates these beliefs; it makes them into suppositions that they are the natural way the world works, taken-for-granted beliefs or facts. The imaginary makes questions around these ideologies essentially “un-askable” because it masks them as normal and natural. Heterosexuality is an example of an ideology: the social world is organized in line with it and it is a taken for granted truth. This truth is covered heterosexual imaginary, which clinches off any critical thought about the heterosexual ideology being a centrally organizing institution (Ingraham, …show more content…
Straight, male cheerleaders went to great lengths to prove their masculinity, which reinforced heteronormativity because it is the stigmatized norm. It also enabled heteroflexibility because men were allowed to deviate from strictly heterosexual contact if there was “good cause.” As one student said, “This one girl said she’d fuck us if we both made out. So the ends justified the means. We call it good cause” (Anderson, 2007:109). Heteroflexibility was okay because it was supporting men’s masculine pursuit of women. This also reinforced heteronormativity because it is making an exception for something typically unacceptable, in order to allow heterosexuality. Straightness is the appropriate identity here, while gayness is accepted in order to facilitate straight. “normal”
White, straight men having sex with other straight men works to reproduce heteronormativity. They do this by utilizing the ideology that heterosexuality is natural and homosexuality is the opposite and unnatural. They adjust their discourses around same-sex sex to categorize it as straight or gay, masculine or feminine, depending upon the situation. White, straight men engineer situations in which they can participate in same-sex activities under a heterosexual pretense. They do this by taking advantage of heteronormativity maintained by the heterosexual imaginary. Ward presents examples of this and uses terms like supplementarity, ideology, imaginary, heterogenders, and heteronormativity to explain …show more content…
The imaginary is what sublimates these beliefs; it makes them into suppositions that they are the natural way the world works, taken-for-granted beliefs or facts. The imaginary makes questions around these ideologies essentially “un-askable” because it masks them as normal and natural. Heterosexuality is an example of an ideology: the social world is organized in line with it and it is a taken for granted truth. This truth is covered heterosexual imaginary, which clinches off any critical thought about the heterosexual ideology being a centrally organizing institution (Ingraham, …show more content…
Straight, male cheerleaders went to great lengths to prove their masculinity, which reinforced heteronormativity because it is the stigmatized norm. It also enabled heteroflexibility because men were allowed to deviate from strictly heterosexual contact if there was “good cause.” As one student said, “This one girl said she’d fuck us if we both made out. So the ends justified the means. We call it good cause” (Anderson, 2007:109). Heteroflexibility was okay because it was supporting men’s masculine pursuit of women. This also reinforced heteronormativity because it is making an exception for something typically unacceptable, in order to allow heterosexuality. Straightness is the appropriate identity here, while gayness is accepted in order to facilitate straight. “normal”