Compulsory Heterosexuality
Compulsory heterosexuality – a concept developed and brought into feminist literary and scholarly discourse by the American poet, essayist, and second-wave feminist Adrienne Rich in her essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” (1980).
The concept of compulsory heterosexuality refers to a broad set of social practices, norms, and prescriptions through which heterosexuality is promoted and imposed upon women as the only normal and privileged form of sexual orientation.
Rich argues that women are treated as the emotional and sexual property of men and that women’s equality and autonomy are perceived as threats to the family, religion, and the state. Social institutions that have traditionally exercised control over women — including motherhood as organized under patriarchy, systems of economic exploitation, the nuclear family, and compulsory heterosexuality — receive legislative support, religious reinforcement, normalization through the media, and protection through censorship (Rich, 2003 [1980], p. 11).
According to Rich, the assumption that “most women are innately heterosexual” constitutes a theoretical and political barrier within feminism. This assumption can be maintained partly because lesbian existence has been erased from historical narratives and pathologized, and partly because recognizing that heterosexuality may not be a “natural inclination” for women, but something imposed, organized, promoted, and maintained through social power, requires a profound re-evaluation by those who consider themselves freely and “innately” heterosexual.
Rich further argues that the failure to analyse heterosexuality as a social institution is comparable to the failure to recognize that capitalism as an economic system or racism as a caste system is maintained through particular forms of power, including both physical violence and control over consciousness (Rich, 2003 [1980], pp. 26–27).
See also: Heterosexuality, Heteronormativity, Heterosexism, Lesbian Existence.
Reference:
Rich, A. C. (2003). Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence (1980). Journal of Women’s History, 15(3), 11–48.
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