The Reaches of Heteronormativity

An erotic alternative? Women’s perception of gay pornography

“…Moreover, Ward and Schneider (2009) argue that heteronormativity, or the privileging of heterosexuality, pervades all areas of society. As such, it is not surprising that participants would rely upon stereotypes rooted in homonegative and heteronormative assumptions given their ubiquity within Western society.…”

Vanishing Act: Non-straight Identity Narratives of Women in Relationships with Women and Men

“…This, however, does not mean that preexisting categories of gender and sexuality, as Butler (1990) has shown, no longer need to be reckoned with. That is, while notions of gender as performative accomplishment (Butler 1988) or as something we "do" rather than "have" (West and Zimmerman 1987) are far more open-ended and filled with possibilities than the essentialist notions they replaced, neither correspond with the "anything goes" of postmodern theory. On the contrary, both notions are founded in a conceptualization of the larger social context in which individuals perform and do their identities that is much less forgiving, and much more present, than the fluid and discontinuous social landscape observed by postmodern theorists.…”

“…As illustrated by Pascoe (2007) and others (e.g. Ward 2008;West and Zimmerman 1987), homophobia is a deeply entrenched aspect of heteronormativity. Thus, taking a public stance against homophobia is a political act that comes with a certain amount of risk, if by "risk" we mean exposing ourselves to a potential identity challenge and/or subjecting ourselves to the wrath or ridicule of others.…”

“…Here, even the most celebratory expressions of postmodern notions of gender and sexuality-captured nicely by the term PoMoSexuals (Queen and Schimel 1997)-clearly demonstrate the uphill battle that some identity pursuits require. In other words, as long as gender remains a social institution (Martin 2004) and as long as heteronormativity "shapes the production of identities, relationships, cultural expressions, and institutional practices" (Ward and Schneider 2009), the forging of identities that traverse the stubbornly persistent categories of gender and sexuality are particularly challenging. This is so in large part because identities like gender and sexuality are collective identities which, in comparison with individual identities, are more "rigid, fixed, and stable" (Kempny 2002, 7).…”

Generalized and Contingent Trust of Others Among Sexual Minority Individuals

“…Visibility is immediately a factor in every interpersonal interaction, which understandably diminishes generalized trust and increases generalized distrust or particularized trust for visible minority individuals. However, sexual minority individuals are typically assumed to be heterosexual, stemming from heteronormative culture (Ward and Schneider, ). In this way, discrimination occurs more frequently after a disclosure of identity instead of in response to one's appearance (Corrigan and Matthews, ).…”