Heterosexual

Terminology

The term comes from the Greek heteros, which means different. It was explicitly used for the first time at the end of the 19th century in opposition to homosexuality, because, also for the first time, heterosexual behavior was no longer perceived as the main model of intimate human relationships but as a possible identity among many other identities.

Heterosexuality in Old Cultures

Heterosexuality originates a vision of the sexuality understood in hierarchical terms: It was not a mutual feeling between equals but rather a relationship between an individual (usually a man) and his object of desire (usually a woman but not exclusively). Nevertheless, in the later Hellenistic period and in Roman times, there was a higher degree of freedom for women and it was observed in the production of objects destined for the pleasure of both, male and female, and simultaneously, it also became obvious in the erotic representations of heterosexual couples as equals, enjoying the same comfort and the same intense emotions.

However, the main feature in heterosexual relationships from old times onward is its institutionalization and, therefore, the existence of an institutionalized inequality consisting in role differences and power distribution. In old mythology, females are submitted to the will of men and gods, and they only exist to be a recipient of their seeds and give children to them. Aristotle believed that only male seed could procreate; women were just mere receptacles.

Heterosexuality as the Main Accepted Sexual

All current experts, with no exception, agree that heterosexual behavior used to be a compulsory rule of behavior (based on the assumption that men and women are innately attracted to each other) and, therefore, the common pattern of sexual normality. For that same reason, there is no reliable statistics on it and heterosexuality was only in recent times a [Page 845]real object of study. Its basis and main purpose was procreation. First of all, because there was an implicit analogy with the animal world where sexual reproduction and the continuity of the species were natural results of heterosexual coitus. And second, because heterosexual relationships have always been closely linked to religions, and for most of them, it was important to guarantee the fertility of human beings. On the other hand, all mythologies strengthen that idea by offering a large variety of metaphors about the polarization of sexes. In that sense, we can see here what some experts call ritualized behavior built on polar role definition.

However, in our times, heterosexuality is no longer the only rule to be followed but an option among many others, which means that even the idea of normality has changed. A heterosexual relationship goes beyond the coitus—something excluded from the perspectives on the topic in the 19th cen-tury—and it also involves an emotional context where pleasure, desire, the consent in terms of giving and receiving emotions, and so forth, are expressed. Currently, sexuality and reproduction have been decoupled. In many ancient cultures, such as in Greece, heterosexuality was mandatory only to secure procreation, but the field of pleasure and emotions was reserved for homosexual intimacy.

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