History of Heterosexuality

Question 1

In Scotland, how could men engage in sex with each other without challenging their identities?

Answer 1

• If they had a history of “good character,” sex between men could be seen as a transitory episode and not as a deviation, similar to excessive drinking.
• Sex between men was often seen as situational, occurring when women were unavailable.
• Seen as a vice in the same vein as excessive drinking

Question 2

How did changes in gender norms around the 19th/20th century contribute to the creation of heterosexuality as an identity?

Answer 2

Middle class men experienced masculine insecurities because women were:
○ Increasingly entering the paid workforce, leading to fewer men only businesses
○ Increasingly asserting themselves politically
○ Teaching most of the nations kids public schools

Question 3

How did middle-class men respond to the insecurity caused by the feminization of society?

Answer 3

• Men emphasized differences between themselves and women, engaging in activities like weightlifting, sports, and outdoor interests to reinforce masculinity.
• They also limited physical and emotional intimacy with other men.

Question 4

How did changes in the economy cause insecurity in men’s masculinity?

Answer 4

• shift from small businesses to large corporations reduced men’s economic independence and control over their work, making them feel less masculine compared to men in physical labor jobs.
• Fewer opportunities for economic advancement in organisational hierarchies

Question 5

What was the role of “fairies” in working-class masculinity in the late 19th/early 20th centuries?

Answer 5

• “Fairies” are feminine men who had sex with other men and typically performed passive roles.
• seen as a threat to masculinity but also helped reinforce the masculinity of non-fairy men by comparison.
• Challenged rigid gender binaries
• Indicated that men’s admiration/interest in other men could have a sexual meaning

Question 6

What factors helped spread heterosexuality as an identity?

Answer 6

• In mid 1800s heterosexuality also helped to legitimate sexual pleasure between married middle class people
• Heterosexuality distinguished middle class peoples allegedly “normal” behaviours from those of their working class counterparts
• Middle class men were among the first to identify with the term “heterosexual”

Question 7

What were the consequences of the creation of heterosexuality and homosexuality as identities?

Answer 7

• Same-sex sexuality became mostly limited to LGBQ people
• Straight men and women lost much of their ability to have emotionally and non-sexual physically intimate relationships with the same sex especially men
• Gays and lesbians were considered deviant and criminalized, institutionalized and stigmatized
• gained collective sense of identity that led to social movements, political organizing and distinct institutions

Question 8

How did the emergence of homosexual identity benefit heterosexual identity?

Answer 8

• Existence of “heterosexuality” serves to delineate the boundaries of acceptable behavior for all men
• Creation of a punished, despised role of “homosexual” keeps the bulk of society pure –> similar to how punishment of criminals keeps majority of society law abiding
• social labelling as a tool for clear-cut recognizable threshold between permissible and impermissible behaviour