heterosexualism

English

Etymology

heterosexual +‎ -ism

Noun

heterosexualism (uncountable)

1. Discrimination against non-heterosexual people on the basis of their sexual orientation.
   • 1990, Lawrence Mass, Dialogues of the Sexual Revolution:

     What I fear is the normalization of homosexual behavior, which otherwise stands as a challenge to heterosexualism—the belief that all sexual behavior should be procreative or at least not preclude the possibility of babymaking.

   • 1993, Roderick Keith Linzie, Analysis of the anti-racist student movement at the University of Michigan -- Ann Arbor:

     The organization is no longer a coalition against racism. It's now a coalition against racism, sexism, classism, militarism and heterosexualism.

   • 2003, Ojáncano - Issues 23-26, page 88:

     He is able to see his marginalization as a positive act of self-determination, while at the same time wanting nothing to do with leftíst gay politics. He is apart and fighting against heterosexualism, but he is also far from the madding gay crowd.

   • 2003, Human Rights Organizations & Periodicals Directory, page 119:

     Conducts community organizing project and in-service on understanding the causes of male violence against women, and training on racism, sexism, ageism, and heterosexualism/homophobia.

2. The state or existence of heterosexuality, including the traditional gender roles that accompany it.
   • 1993, Gilbert H. Herdt, Andrew Boxer, Children of Horizons: how gay and lesbian teens are leading a new way out of the closet:

     The moral fabric of American family life centered on the suburban "split level family" of the suburbs, upholding the values and beliefs of heterosexualism, as pictured in the novels of Edmund White and other recent gay writers.

   • 1998, Janet R. Jakobsen, Working Alliances and the Politics of Difference:

     From the position of possibility created by separating from heterosexualism, Hoagland incites a "moral revolution" that can enable lesbian agency and might also lead to the end of heterosexualism, gender domination, and the (moral) existence of women and men.

   • 2008, Alison Bailey, The Feminist Philosophy Reader, page 522:

     In my opinion, to fully evaluate the relationship of dominance and subordination we need concern ourselves not only with addressing sexism, or even homophobia or heterosexism, but more substantially, with the actual relationship of heterosexualism.

3. Synonym of heterosexuality
   • 1946, Journal of Clinical Psychopathology: 1945/1946 - Volume 7, page 483:

     I have talked this observation over with Rank, Freud, Ferenczi and other psychoanalysts, and it seems to be generally agreed that secret, isolated autoerotism does not convert easily to heterosexualism and is far more difficult to cure by psychoanalysis than homosexual masturbation that has not continued too long.

   • 1979, Brian J. Ford, Patterns of sex: the mating urge and our sexual future, page 155:

     My viewpoint is one that bears directly against the view of gays and bisexual people that homosexuality is entirely normal, an equivalent substitute for heterosexualism and - as some argue - the real McCoy.

   • 1992, Stephanie Castle, Feelings: A Transexual's Explanation of a Baffling Condition, page 20:

     To keep the condition of transsexualism, and the orientation of either heterosexualism and homosexualism separate, try likening the subject to a two-layer sandwich.

   • 2007, Dagmar Schiek, Lisa Waddington, Mark Bell, Cases, Materials and Text on National, Supranational and International Nondiscrimination Law, page 88:

     Although it is difficult to derive any general conclusions from these examples, there seems to be some agreement as to the fact that forms of sexual inclination other than homo- or heterosexualism are usually excluded from the definition of sexual orientation.

Synonyms

• (discrimination against non-heterosexuals) heterosexism

Translations

type of discrimination

• Finnish: heteroseksismi (fi)