Introduction
Heteronormativity is the idea that heterosexual attraction and relationships are the normal form of sexuality. It is rooted in a linked essential, dichotomous understanding of sexuality (a person is either heterosexual or homosexual) and gender (a person is either a man or a woman) and the perception that these things are fixed and unchanging.
Mainstream psychology has a long history of heterosexism and homophobia (homosexuality was included as a “mental disorder” in the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual until 1974) and remains largely heteronormative. Conventional psychological textbooks overwhelmingly present relationships and attraction as heterosexual and consider lesbian, gay, and bisexual sexualities mainly in the context of (mostly biological) explanations of human sexuality (Barker, 2007).
In its attendance to the operations of power and its location of subjectivities within their societal context (rather than understanding human...
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Online Resources
What is heteronormativity? http://www.genderandeducation.com/issues/what-is-heteronormativity
What’s wrong with heteronormativity? http://rewritingtherules.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/whats-wrong-with-heteronormativity
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Barker, M. (2014). Heteronormativity. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_134
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