Compulsory Heterosexuality

First coined by Adrienne Rich (1980), the term compulsory heterosexuality refers to the idea that heterosexuality is constructed, institutionalized, and [Page 157]reinforced as not only a universal, but the only “normal” and “acceptable” form of sexuality. One idea behind compulsory heterosexuality is that heterosexu-ality is not a freely made choice for most people and for women in particular: Heterosexuality is not simply one option among many. Rather, it is a pervasive, powerful, and coercive social and political institution that depends on other powerful social institutions to maintain its dominance. From this perspective, heterosexuality is imposed upon people as natural and inevitable by peers, parents, schools, media, and other social institutions such as law and religion.

Rich originally conceived of compulsory heterosexuality as an institution forced upon women in the service of patriarchy and male dominance. Heterosexuality thus ultimately devalues all women. Women, she argues, have been both “forcibly” and “sublimi-nally” coerced into heterosexual unions to survive economically, in order to have children and to provide for those children. Compliance with compulsory heterosexuality is also necessary to avoid social ostracism and in more extreme cases, imprisonment, torture, or psychosurgery. Rich argues that through the idealization of heterosexual romance and the invisibility of other forms of sexual expression, such as lesbianism, as well as through pervasive societal antigay attitudes and behaviors, compulsory heterosexuality thus forces male sexuality upon women and denies women their own sexuality.

Rich argues that because heterosexuality is imposed and forced upon women, women's true sexuality cannot be identified. Women have a fundamental attraction to other women, according to Rich, because like all individuals, their first bonding experience is with their mothers. Lesbianism, then, is a real possibility for many women, and heterosexuality is neither necessarily natural nor inevitable. Yet because of the compulsory nature of heterosexuality, many possibilities for a lesbian existence, including social and political ties and alliances with other women, are closed off, as they are seen as unnatural, immoral, and sometimes illegal. Instead, women are forced into traditional family lives.

Since Rich's original work, other scholars have looked to ways in which heterosexuality is not only compulsory for women, but for men as well. Deborah L. Tolman and her coauthors, for example, show how the sexual expression of adolescent boys is constrained by compulsory heterosexuality. Boys recognize that homosexuality is met with social ostracism and violence and are thus coerced into entering into heterosexual relationships characterized by male dominance and sexual aggression.

Many lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transsexual (LGBT) activists have found the concept of compulsory heterosexuality useful in advancing their cause of eliminating institutional heterosexism and homophobia, as it draws attention to the ways in which heterosexuality is socially constructed as the only normal form of sexual expression and the ways in which it reinforces traditional gender roles. Thus, through an articulation of compulsory heterosexuality, some LGBT groups are able to gain allies in the straight community by showing how the institutionahzation of heterosexuality creates a power imbalance not only between homosexuals and heterosexuals but also between men and women.

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