Full Description
While a majority of people identify as "heterosexual" if asked about their sexual identity, what does that really mean? How did identifying as "straight" arise, particularly in relation to identifying as "queer," "lesbian," and "gay"? How are individuals socialized to view themselves and others as straight, even when many people are sexually fluid? How do institutions like government bodies, the educational system, and the family reinforce heterosexuality? This collection introduces the field of Critical Heterosexualities Studies and key lines of inquiry within the field.
Like Masculinity Studies and Whiteness Studies, Heterosexualities Studies critically examines the dominant category and identity group in order to illuminate the taken-for-granted assumptions that surround heterosexual identities. This critical perspective questions the idea that heterosexuality is natural, normal, and biologically driven. A recurring question throughout this Handbook is: what does it mean to say that there are multiple forms of heterosexuality? The answer is provided by cases showing how straightness varies between men and women but also across different racial groups, social classes, and one's status as trans or cisgender.
Organized around key themes of inquiry including heterosexualities across the life course, straight identities and their intersections, the power of straightness in state politics, and the changing meaning of heterosexualities in the context of sexual fluidity, this collection provides readers with an introduction to Critical Heterosexualities Studies through important theoretical statements, key historical studies, and current empirical research. Featuring both classic works and original essays written expressly for this volume, this collection provides a state-of-the-art overview of this exciting new field in sexualities studies.
Contents
Introduction - Thinking Straightness: An Introduction to Critical Heterosexualities Studies Part 1: Origins, Histories, Theories 1. Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence 2. Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions 3. The Invention of Heterosexuality 4. Critique of Compulsory Heterosexuality Part 2: Heterosexualities Across the Life Course 5. Normalizing Heterosexuality: Mothers' Assumptions, Talk, and Strategies with Young Children 6. "Your Father Wouldn't Like It:" The Social Construction of Heterosexuality in Early Childhood 7. "Coming Out": Gender, (Hetero)Sexuality and the Primary School 8. The Ambiguity of "Having Sex": The Subjective Experience of Virginity Loss in the United States 9. Hooking Up: Hot Hetero sex or the New Numb Normative? 10. "Speaking as a Heterosexual": (How) Does Sexuality Matter for Talk-in-Interaction? 11. A Heterosexual Life: Older Women and Agency within Marriage and the Family Part 3: Straight Identities and Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender 12. Prisons for Our Bodies, Closets for Our Minds: Racism, Heterosexism, and Black Sexuality 13. Displaying Heterosexuality in An Inner City 14. Straight Women: Doing and Undoing Compulsory Heterosexuality in Post-Closeted American Culture 15. "Guys are Just Homophobic": Rethinking Adolescent Homophobia and Heterosexuality 16. "Sprinkle Some Gay on my Straight": Hybrid Hegemonic Masculinities in a Post-Gay Era 17. Doing Gender, Doing Heteronormativity: "Gender Normals", Transgender People, and the Social Maintenance of Heterosexuality Part 4: Straight States 18. Introduction to "The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth Century America" 19. Uganda's Anti-homosexuality Bill: Reflections from a Transnational Frame 20. One is not Born a Bride: How Weddings Regulate Heterosexuality 21. Promoting Marriage for America: The Intimate Relationship Between the State and Heterosexuality Part 5: Rethinking Sexual Fluidity, Straight Privilege, and Allyship 22. Straight Girls Kissing: Heteroflexibility in the College Party Scene 23. A Mixed-Method Study of Same-Sex Kissing among College-Attending Heterosexual Men 24. Bud-Sex: Constructing Normative Masculinity Among Rural Straight Men That Have Sex with Men 25. 'Straight with a Pinch of Bi': The Contours of Male Heteroflexibility 26. No Homo 27. "With Allies Like These...": Toward a Sociology of Straight Allies
