Heteronormativity

Throughout history the Canadian education system has been utilized as a means to instil societal values and reproduce cultural norms. Researchers have referred to this phenomenon as the hidden curriculum (Jay, 2003). This hidden curriculum serves to secure the privilege of the dominant culture while subsequently marginalizing minority individuals. Normative discourses of gender and sexuality are promoted to students through the process of socialization. The process of constructing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) individuals as deviating from the heterosexual norm is referred to as heteronormativity. Furthermore, the implication that heterosexual orientations and relationships are normal and superior to those…

Modern musings about society heavily question the unquestioned. Heteronormativity is naturalization of hetero/homo binary thinking about sexual attraction that privileges an investment in ‘straightness’, or how gender normativity is understood in Western contexts. It’s important to distinguish that this investment in straightness is characterized by heterosexual culture rather than heterosexual physical activity (Ingraham 209). It also is perpetuated as a social order and institution in…

The Detrimental Effect of Heteronormativity We live in a world of compulsive heterosexuality. All around us we are bombarded with images and ideals of heterosexuality, from advertisements to legislation. Similar to racial privilege, those who benefit from heterosexual privilege do not always realize how much easier life can be when sexual identity follows the societal norm. Not only does heteronormativity encourage the existence of heterosexuality as the only acceptable form of sexuality, it…

struggle to fit in with everyone. Since bisexuals, homosexuals and transgender people have the same flesh and blood as every human being, does that not make them the same as you and I? I will argue that heteronormativity is a norm that we as human beings should no longer follow and evolve to a more diverse and equal norm. I will also discuss the flaws of heteronormativity and that as more people are made aware of the flaws that heteronormativity withholds, bisexuals, homosexuals and transgender…

The concept of heteronormativity is referred as an intersection of gender and sexuality, which defines gender into a binary category and naturalizes sexual attraction (Hofstätter, 1). In the film Strictly Ballroom as well as Mad Hot Ballroom the theory of heteronormativity is established and exemplified through the gender roles prescribed within traditional dance rules, specifically in ballroom dance. In Strictly Ballroom, the dancers who are attempting to compete in the Pan-Pacific…

between these marginalized groups and equal representation, but there is still a lot of ground to cover. Stuart Hall’s take on cultural struggle offers us a great template, through which we can look at these power relations and see their significance in the lives of the marginalized. As a case example this essay uses Sony’s 2016 blockbuster, Ghostbusters reboot directed by Paul Feig, starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. The film has attracted a large queer…

Heteronormativity is the belief that people can be categorised into definite and interdependant genders, women and male. It postulates that heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation. This ideology states that sexual relations between these two genders are most suitable within opposite sexes. These views are based in relation to biological sex, gender indentity, sexuality and gender roles. Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, actvivities and attributes that a given…

as was discussed in ‘Mormon Clients’ Experiences of Conversion Therapy: The Need for a New Treatment Approach’. The film makes use of inserting comedy into the heteronormativity in the conversion therapy to make fun of the overly structured way in which Mary, head therapist, sees ‘heterosexual’ behaviour performed by ‘heterosexual’ people. ‘A Queer Vision of Emerging Adulthood: Seeing Sexuality in the Transition to Adulthood’, an article written in 2012 by Jason Torkelson argues that…

sexuality in western culture was challenged because heteronormativity is viewed as normal and natural. As Dhamoon (2009) argues trans-sexuality is seen as deviant and abnormal because the person is not conforming to a true sex (p.107). Trans-sexuals fall into the disability notion because it is linked to an illness or gender disorder. This shows how trans-sexuals are…

Since the advent of civilization, society has tended to experiment with codes that regulate human morality in conformance with established norms and expectations (Halperin, 1990). Of particular interests to societal institutions is sexuality, which for the better part of the centuries leading to the 20th century has been governed by codes drawn from religion and civil laws (Foucault, 1979). Society has continuously normalized heterosexism as the appropriate form of sexuality that should be…