Knowra Heteronormativity Heteronormativity Heteronormativity is the assumption that heterosexuality and conventional gender roles are normal, natural, or preferred. It shapes expectations, institutions, and social practices around those assumptions.
Compulsory heterosexuality : The social enforcement of heterosexuality as an expected or mandatory way of life. It names the pressure that makes heterosexuality seem compulsory rather than simply common.
Adrienne Rich : An American poet and feminist writer whose work examined power, sexuality, and women's lives. Her essay on compulsory heterosexuality helped frame heterosexuality as a political institution.
Marriage : A legally or socially recognized union that establishes rights and obligations between partners. Marriage laws and customs can encode assumptions about which relationships count as ordinary or legitimate.
Heteronormative discrimination : Unequal treatment arising from assumptions that heterosexuality and conventional gender roles are normal. It names direct disadvantages produced when institutions or individuals enforce heteronormative expectations.
Homophobia : Aversion, prejudice, or discrimination directed at gay people or homosexuality. Unlike explicit hostility, heteronormativity can operate through ordinary defaults without overt animus.
Gender role : A set of social expectations about behavior associated with a person's gender. Conventional gender roles reinforce the expectations heteronormativity places on relationships.
Michael Warner : An American literary theorist and queer studies scholar. Warner helped establish heteronormativity as a term in queer theory.
Family : A group of people connected by kinship, partnership, care, or shared household life. Family expectations often presume a heterosexual couple and conventional parental roles.
Minority stress : Chronic stress experienced by members of stigmatized groups because of prejudice and social disadvantage. Heteronormative stigma can contribute to ongoing stress among sexual and gender minorities.
Homonormativity : The assimilation of some LGBTQ people into dominant norms of coupledom, consumption, and respectability. It describes conformity within LGBTQ communities, rather than the privileging of heterosexuality itself.
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