The Tragedy of Heterosexuality by Jane WardRating: ✩✩✩✩✩
Well, this was a lot of things that I knew were true, but seeing them all in text like this answers the famous question of "Are the straights OK?' with a resounding "Not at all." I could talk about each section of this book for so long I would have written my own text (I took seven full pages of notes), but the broad strokes are as follows:
* Heterosexuality is system that has long benefited men at the expense of women.
* There is an entire industry based on fixing straight relationships that fails to address the core problem (men's entitlement) and foists all the work back onto women.
* This industry is based deeply in sexism, racism, eugenics and many other intersections of oppression.
*As a queer person looking in, this all seems completely ridiculous and there is no reason for it to be the default setting in modern civilization with such compulsory participation.
* While sexuality is not something someone chooses, the enactment of those relationships is absolutely a personal responsibility and should be examined.
While the book is not 100% without critique (some referenced authors come with their own problematic histories) it was a very insightful examination of everything that heterosexuals, perhaps especially straight women, need to understand about the institution before they jump into the deep end of heteronormativity. Straightness as it stands doesn't do anyone any favors and the reasons it has been upheld as the gold standard deserve some evaluation.
Published 2020 by NYU Press
Book #7 of 2023
1 comment:
Wow, your review is amazing. so much to think about.
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