Hetero-Normativity

Hetero-normativity is the idea that most people assume that everyone we meet in real life as well as people or characters we see on TV are straight, until shown or said to be otherwise.  I understand why some people may have a problem with this or find it offensive, it makes it seem that to be anything other the heterosexual is not normal or is classified differently and put into a different category.  I however would argue that although it may not be perfect, it would be too mentally exhausting to make no judgments and have to use other clues and figure out or guess about people’s sexual orientation.  Hetero-normativity is a thing because the majority of the population in the United States, and world is heterosexual.

If I had to introduce myself to everyone I met (or maybe just potential partners) by saying, “Hi, I’m Sam and I am straight”, it would make things weird and it would assume that everyone needs to know your sexual orientation before they can have a conversation with you.  I don’t think hetero-normativity is as dangerous as it seems because even though I may assume someone is straight, I don’t think I would make judgments about them based solely on that fact (or even if they turned out to be gay for that matter).  Sexual orientation is part of everyone’s identity, yes, but it is not their sole identity.

Even though I disagree with the dangers that it poses, I believe that the only way to change the way people think about hetero-normativity is to increase the presence of gay and lesbians in children’s TV programming.  These ideas about what is right and wrong are imprinted on us from childhood and so to claim that we can change our concepts in adulthood is significantly more challenging.  This is not to say, flood children’s TV with gay and lesbians, but introduce the alternative since many kids seem to even be unaware that there is such a thing.