heterosexual

Examples of heterosexual in the following topics:

• Socialization and Human Sexuality

  • In regards to sexuality, socialization in the U.S. and Western countries most notably adheres to heteronormativity, or the marking of heterosexual unions as normal and homosexual unions as socially abnormal and deviant.
  • While homosexual unions are the types of unions most commonly marked in opposition to normative heterosexual unions, heteronormativity marks any type of non-heterosexual sexual activity as deviant, as heterosexual sexual acts are considered the norm.
  • At the current moment in Western societies, sexuality is evaluated along a continuum of heterosexuality and homosexuality, with heterosexuality as the privileged mode of sexual expression.
  • In contrast, the Ancient Greeks categorized sexuality not in terms of homosexuality and heterosexuality, but in terms of active and passive sexual subjects.
  • In this sense, biological gender was obviously relevant, but not in the same way as evaluating homo- or heterosexual orientation.

• Sexual Orientation

  • The United States is a heteronormative society, meaning it supports heterosexuality as the norm.
  • but heterosexuals are rarely asked, "When did you know you were straight?"
  • Living in a culture that privileges heterosexuality has a significant impact on the ways in which non-heterosexual people are able to develop and express their sexuality.
  • To classify this continuum of heterosexuality and homosexuality, Kinsey created a six-point rating scale that ranges from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual.
  • The Kinsey scale indicates that sexuality can be measured by more than just heterosexuality and homosexuality.

• Age and Sexuality

  • Building on the aforementioned observations, researchers have also noted tremendous variation between heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trangender, intersex, queer, and asexual (LGBTIQA) aging processes.
  • Whereas most cultural assumptions and norms about aging are built upon socially constructed heterosexual ideals, research consistently shows that sexual and gender minority groups experience the life course in vastly different ways, which often include earlier social maturation (often due to early experiences with familial and social discrimination), later sexual experimentation and activity (often due to early experiences attempting to and / or being forced to change or hide non-heterosexual and non-cisgendered sexual desires), and greater commitment to sexual health, education, and safe-sex practices than their heterosexual counterparts (often due to the lack of education and information available to them in mainstream society as well as the lingering lessons and educational protocols that grew out of the Aids crisis).
  • Further, researchers have shown that biological (and to a lesser extent self-perceived or social) age often heavily influences the political stances, practices, and beliefs of sexual and gender minorities with older LGBTIQA people often mirroring "don't ask don't tell" approaches of the past, middle-aged LGBTIQA people often adopting a "politics of respectability" (e.g., seek to be as normal as possible through inclusion into marital, religious, and familial heterosexual institutions), and younger LGBTIQA people typically promoting more radical / Queer / Feminist / Social Justice approaches to sexual politics (see also heteronormativity and LGBTQIA movement histories for further elaboration on the relationship between historical context and sexual politics and for a basic introduction to some sexual political history).
  • Finally, recent reveals similar influences upon sexual and gender politics among heterosexual respondents, but to date, little systematic research has explored this topic.

• Deviance

  • An example is heterosexual white males who become drag queens weekends.
  • This practice represents a luxury, as heterosexual white males can afford to temporarily assume this different identity, knowing that they can return to the comforts of their regular socioeconomic status.
  • One example involves heterosexual white males who become drag queens on weekends.
  • This behavior represents a luxury, because heterosexual white males can afford to make a temporarily shift, knowing that they may subsequently return to the comforts of their prevailing socioeconomic status.

• Sexual Orientation

  • There are three main classifications of sexual orientation: heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual.
  • Heterosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between persons of the opposite sex.
  • It also holds that heterosexuality is the normal sexual orientation, and that sexual and marital relations are most (or only) fitting between a man and a woman.
  • It can include the presumption that everyone is heterosexual or that opposite-sex attractions and relationships are the only norm and therefore superior.
  • Define the three main classifications of sexual orientation: bisexual, heterosexual, and homosexual

• Sexual Orientation

  • Heterosexuals and homosexuals may also be referred to informally as "straight" and "gay," respectively.
  • The United States is a heteronormative society, meaning it supports heterosexuality as the norm.
  • but heterosexuals are rarely asked, "When did you know you were straight?"
  • Living in a culture that privileges heterosexuality has a significant impact on the ways in which non-heterosexual people are able to express their sexuality.
  • To classify this continuum of heterosexuality and homosexuality, Kinsey created a six-point rating scale that ranges from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual .

• Homophobia

  • If homophobic discrimination is institutional, it means either that non-heterosexual sex acts are criminalized or that LGBTQ individuals are denied the same legal rights as heterosexuals.
  • Uganda, for example, criminalizes non-heterosexual sex acts and most Ugandans consider non-heterosexuality to be taboo.
  • Under the statues of the bill, individuals convicted of a single act of non-heterosexual sex would receive life imprisonment.
  • Although non-heterosexual sex acts are legal in the United States, LGTBQ people still face institutional discrimination because they are not afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples.
  • Homophobia can occurs when heterosexual individuals feel anxiety about being perceived as gay by others.

• Sexual Behavior Since Kinsey

  • Alfred Kinsey, in the early 1950s contributed to the sparking of the sexual revolution, or the loosening of sexual mores demanding sex between heterosexual married partners that occurred in the 1960s.
  • Kinsey's report reachd the conclusion that few Americans are completely heterosexual in desire or practice as indicated by the Kinsey Scale, or a numeric scaling of individuals along a continuum from complete heterosexuality to complete homosexuality.
  • The Kinsey Report was one step towards non-heterosexual orientations and behaviors becoming accepted by society as normal.
  • Kinsey's publication initiated a national environment more tolerant to conversations about sexuality, which in and of itself loosened the grip of normalized, marital heterosexual relations.

• Families and Inequality

  • While heterosexual marriage does increase the socioeconomic status of women, men reap many benefits from this type of living arrangement.
  • Men also obtain greater mental health benefits from heterosexual marriage than do women and report greater marital satisfaction than do women.
  • Heterosexual married women also have higher rates of mental illness than do single, widowed, and divorced women.
  • In short, the benefits of heterosexual marriage tend to favor men over women.
  • Among the rights distinguishing serfdom from slavery was the right to enter a legally recognizable heterosexual marriage.

• Sexual Orientation

  • Some individuals have tried to trouble these categories of sexual orientation by not describing themselves as hetero-, homo-, bi-, or asexual and preferring the umbrella term "queer. " Part of the opposition to the gender binary is that it creates heteronormative assumptions that mark heterosexuality as normal and homosexuality deviant merely because it is the opposite of heterosexuality.
  • These organizations tend to pathologize non-heterosexual orientations, or conceive of them as an illness that must be corrected through medical or therapeutic means.
  • Androphilia and gynephilia are preferred terms for some populations, because homosexual and heterosexual assign a sex to the person being described.
  • Explain the development of sexual orientation (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or asexual) in terms of both static and fluid sexuality