Between Privileges and Sacrifices: Heteronormativity and Turkish Nationalism in Urban Turkey

A Multidimensional Understanding of the Relationship between Sexual Identity, Heteronormativity, and Sexual Satisfaction among a Cisgender Sample

“…Historically, and across many cultures, gender and sexuality have been intertwined (sometimes conflated) in ways that help uphold heteronormativity (e.g., society privileging of heterosexuality and gender conformity primarily focused on the privileged positionality of a cisgender, heterosexual man (Pollitt et al 2019)). For example, in a study that focused on the attitudes of Turkish men toward queer people, Gezgin (2023) found high levels of intolerance among members of "dominant" social categories (e.g., cisgender and heterosexual) displayed towards anyone who does not perform or identify as cisgender and heterosexual because these performances and identifications challenge heteronormativity, specifically patriarchally based power. Thus, the hegemonic force of heterosexuality (e.g., heterosexual matrix (Butler 1990)) places constraints on how each gender will perform their sexuality (Erickson-Schroth and Mitchell 2009).…”

“…Sexual identities comes with assumed norms, roles, and interests that also are culturally situated (Gezgin 2023;Valocchi 2005;Zhao and Madill 2018). Queer theory highlights the limitations while simultaneously acknowledging the very real effects of normative 'truths' that different labels hold, especially when sexual identity is reduced to orientation (Zeeman et al 2013).…”

“…For example, extant research most often has focused on links between and variations in sexual satisfaction and sexual functioning (e.g., erectile dysfunction and masturbation (Heiman et al 2011)), sexual communication (Sprecher and Hendrick 2004), gender disparities (e.g., orgasm gap (Hurlbert et al 1993)), the context of disease (e.g., cancer and HIV (Glynn et al 2017)), or behavioral outcomes (e.g., unintended pregnancy (Finer and Zolna 2016)). Although the extant literature suggests an examination of individual and relational factors adequately predicts sexual satisfaction, contemporary studies suggest that a more holistic set of factors spanning bio-psycho-socio-cultural contexts is needed to better understand some of the unique correlates of sexual satisfaction among diverse groups, especially those who are sexual and/or gender minorities and/or women (Fleary et al 2018;Feinstein et al 2023;Hambour et al 2023;Shepler et al 2018), including those that live in various contexts across the globe (e.g., Gezgin 2023;Pérez et al 2023). Such factors might include minority stress (Björkenstam et al 2020), internalized homonegativity (Bahamondes et al 2023;Shepler et al 2018), and heteronormativity (Muñoz-Laboy et al 2014), all of which are linked to sexual satisfaction.…”