Hetero orientation is.? What is considered “normal”?
In recent years, we’ve learned a lot about the LGBT community and its members, what it means to “come out,” etc. How long has this emphasis on heterosexuality been around?
Contents of the article:
Nature or Nurture?
The 1901 Dorland’s Medical Dictionary offered a very unusual definition of heterosexuality: “An abnormal or perverted attraction to the opposite sex.” Interesting. Twenty years later, the Merriam-Webster dictionary adopted this definition: “A morbid sexual passion for the opposite sex.” That’s not so bad.
This shocking fact was revealed a few years ago by the BBC itself. It’s certainly hard to believe. What nonsense? Heterosexuality is normal! And it always has been.
Watch a video that circulated online a few years ago. In it, a man approached a passerby on the street and asked him if he believed homosexuals were born that way. “I think education plays a big part,” the man replied. The interviewer listened carefully to their answers and then asked:
This trick question immediately confused people. They avoided and retreated, feeling prejudiced and insecure. Eventually, both sides came to the conclusion that homosexuals are born homosexual, just as heterosexuals are born heterosexual.
Others believe that homosexuality simply appeared and blossomed overnight. It seemed as if a new “homosexual” era had dawned in human history. We won’t discuss how far from the truth this is for now. Let’s talk about something else: that heterosexuality isn’t always the norm.
Non-Heterosexual Times
Heterosexuality is so common and normal that it’s not worth talking about. Heterosexuality is something humanity hasn’t been able to overcome. It’s here and always will be. Right?
Sex has no history because it’s simply “body work.” And sexuality has its own history because it’s a product of culture. “Sex is common to most animals, but the categorization of these acts and the people who practice them is a historical phenomenon,” says David Halperin, a homosexual theorist at the University of Michigan.
Simply put, sex has always existed. However, people’s attitudes toward sex and sexuality have varied. Heterosexuality isn’t about sex, but about attitudes toward it.
Historian, writer, and social activist Hannah Blank went further and compared heterosexuality to fish in her book, Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality. Specifically, to species like the Electrolux addisoni, which scientists discovered several decades ago. This fish didn’t appear out of nowhere; it had been around for some time. They simply gave it a name.
The same thing happened with heterosexuals in the late 19th century. Blank writes that before that, there were neither homosexuals nor heterosexuals. It didn’t occur to people that they should categorize each other. People simply had sex. There were some unpleasantries and taboos, but everyone focused on the process, not the label.
The terms “heterosexual” and “homosexual” emerged in the late 1860s, coined by Hungarian journalist Karl Maria Kertövenyi.
There’s always been talk of a standard being established, but a standard is an expansive concept. Slavery was once considered the norm, as in Earth-centric cosmology (the doctrine that the Earth does not move and occupies a central position in the universe).
Richard von Krafft-Ebing was an Austro-German psychiatrist who viewed sexual norms in terms of reproductive utility. This resonated with dominant sexual theories in the West. Sexuality is divided into homosexual and heterosexual, but not into what leads to discovery and what does not. The Bible condemns homosexuality for the same reason it condemns masturbation—life-giving semen is spilled during the act. And “useless” spilled semen. But this teaching comes not from the Hebrew or Christian Bible, but from Stoicism.
Read also: Who is heterosexual and where did the concept of heterosexuality come from?
You might think it’s easier to answer the question “Who is heterosexual?” But in fact, several interesting facts are relevant. Who is Mr..?
The Stoics believed that people should use their will to regulate their emotions to achieve inner peace. Thus, Prusonius Rufus argued that people should resist their desires and renounce excesses, including sexual ones. Musonius Rufus, Todd Saltzman, and other Stoics spread the idea that sexual intercourse is an immoral act that should not be produced. Christians adopted this idea.
Freud and Others
As American life became more structured, heterosexuality “emerged.” This form of “invention” of heterosexuality is believed to be closely linked to the rise of the middle class.
At the end of the 19th century, the population of European and North American cities increased tenfold. As people moved to large cities, they developed sexual preferences and perversions. “Compared to small towns and villages, big cities seemed like seedbeds of sexual excess. The fewer people you have, the easier it is to control them. Neighbors know each other, and many are deterred by the fear of gossip,” explains Form.
Increased public awareness of various sexual practices was accompanied by an influx of members of the lower classes. The end result? A very convenient pretext for blaming sexual “misdeeds” on the working class and the poor.
The middle class needed to separate itself from the unworthy members of society. Bourgeois families were overflowing with members of the lower classes and sought to protect Cheng from the decline and terror of the urban aristocracy. A system of social governance that could be implemented on a large scale needed to be devised.
I made the deal of a lifetime
Thus, deviation from the “normal,” or heterosexual, orientation was seen as a sign of moral degeneration, not simply a sin.
Then Freud entered the picture. Old Sigmund advanced the new idea that heterosexuals are not born, but made. Freudian heterosexuality was viewed as an achievement—those who successfully achieved it had traversed a straight and narrow path of development. Freud believed that the heterosexual’s path to normalcy was paved through the mingling of a child’s blood with the desires of parents of the opposite sex, the parents of same-sex rivals, and the desire to kill sibling rivals.
Freud’s highly controversial theories seemed to satisfy a society obsessed with standardizing all aspects of life.
Then came Alfred Kinsey. He rated male sexuality on a scale from zero (exclusive heterosexuality) to six (exclusive homosexuality). He concluded that the majority of the male population could “try” homosexuality from adolescence to old age.
The Future of Heterosexuality
Researcher Wendell Rechts writes: It’s common to divide them into two groups simply because society has become accustomed to doing so.
Jane Ward, author of “Not Gay,” shared her thoughts on the future of heterosexuality in an interview. “What if people could develop sexual desires like food preferences?” she asked the interviewer.
We continue. James Baldwin is a writer and playwright. He hates the term “gay” and believes that in the future, no one will have to use the term. And no one will have to prove anything.
A recent survey among young people in the UK found that less than half of Britons aged 18 to 24 consider themselves 100% heterosexual. This doesn’t mean that everyone else engages in homosexual activity on weekends. Rather, they simply observe a rigid framework and see no need to label it.
Society’s attitude toward homosexuality has changed radically. It’s no longer shocking. There are homosexuals, ordinary people, celebrities, and politicians.
Between the 1960s and 1980s, the divorce rate increased by 90%. Today, the situation is more or less stable, but it’s becoming clear that even heterosexual partners are not immune to unhappy marriages.
The boundaries of sexual orientation are blurred, and many researchers consider their distinctions outdated. “Men and women will continue to have sex with each other until our families die. But heterosexuals may disappear much sooner,” concludes Brandon Ambrosino in an article published by the BBC.
