Heteronormativity

    This selection of images is from Barnes and Noble, the gift store Things Remembered, and Macy’s show a variety of situations where males and females are shown in relation to each other.  The top image shows a personalized necklace showing that “Matt” gave the blushing “Heather”, supposedly for Valentine’s Day.  Below this is a picture of the teen icon Justin Beiber in an advertisement for his perfume; the aloof superstar is shown in contrast with a lusting teenage girl behind him.  Finally, the picture of the Calico Critters shows a family of toy rabbits embodying the ideal family structure:  a male dressed in pants and a button-down shirt, a wife shown in a dress with an apron, and the couple’s two children.

    Here are three unmistakable examples of heteronormativity; in each example a male is being romantically matched with a female.  Each image is targeted toward a different audience.  While Calico Critters is targeting young children, the Justin Beiber perfume is targeting teenage girls, and the Things Remembered window display is targeting couples.  In all of them, there is a message that a male should be with a female and that is what is normal in our society.  However, Diane Raymond, in her article “Popular Culture and Queer Representation”, discusses gays and lesbians and their struggle to find ones identity.  She wrote, “The search for identity always occurs on contested terrain and the struggle to find a voice takes place in a dynamic relationship with the dominant culture where signs and signifiers can be appropriated and reappropriated in an endless chain of interpretation.”  However, such consistent signs, as seen in these images, have often led to sexual identity crises, or a complete compromise of one’s sexual identity.

    In my professional career, I have had a lot of exposure to individuals experiencing shifts in their sexual identity.  I recently worked with one man that was a Protestant priest, but divorced his wife and began living as an openly homosexual male after having been diagnosed with cancer.  Another man I know is married to a woman that used to identify as a lesbian; they have a child.  Two females I used to know in the military identified as lesbians, but now are both married in heterosexual relationships and have children.  I believe exposure to heteronormativity has had a great impact in the lives of these individuals.