Heterosexuality

Heterosexuality is ubiquitous, often forming the standard against which all other sexual orientations are measured. Yet the image of heterosexuality as homogenous and monolithic is misleading. Heterosexual people are no more likely that others to fit neatly into the mold. 

Recommended reading

Passionate Marriage: Love, Sex, and Intimacy in Emotionally Committed Relationships by David Schnarch

Not just for the married, but for anyone in a committed relationship. Commitment is not the end of passion. Read more.

The Invention of Heterosexuality by Jonathan Ned Katz

Heterosexuality may appear to be a universal, timeless norm, but Katz tells us the term was only invented in 1868 (along with the term 'homosexuality'). Read more.

Straight With a Twist: Queer Theory and the Subject of Heterosexuality edited by Calvin Thomas

Queer theory applied to heterosexuality. Read more.

Wifework: What Marriage Really Means for Women by Susan Maushart

Maushart writes that women bear a disproportionate amount of the labour in marriages (domestic, social, emotional) with little reward. Beneath the veneer of equality and choice, married men and women still behave much like their parents' generation. Maushart argues that if the institution of marriage is to be preserved, women and men's roles need to be revised. Read more.  

The Bride Stripped Bare by Anonymous (Nikki Gemmell)

The fictional diary of a young wife, able under the cover of anonymity to reveal the ambiguities and uncomfortable truths of her marriage. Read more.

More on relationships from the Sex and Gender Resource

• Relationships and Lifestyle main page
• Meeting people
• Gay men
• Lesbians
• Bisexuality
• Asexuality
• Polyamory
• Transgender

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