Cash Pooling Intragrupo

Sonoma State University

From Alfred Kinsey’s studies of the sexual behavior of men and women in the 1950s to popular views today, many of us assume that heterosexuality is natural (Kinsey et al. 1948; Kinsey et al. 1953). In addition, the idea of heterosexuality as a social identity is assumed always to have existed. Recent scholarship, however, has challenged these widespread beliefs.

This chapter examines the social construction of heterosexual identities. I begin by briefly sketching the historical development of heterosexual identity over the last 150 years. I then turn to illustrating the social character of heterosexuality by analyzing the relationship between gender and heterosexual identity. In this regard, my focus is on straight men. I want to show how these men use gender to express a heterosexual identity in everyday life. Moreover, I argue that the contemporary development of heterosexual identities, at least in the US, UK and Europe, must be understood in the context of the changing status of gay and lesbian life today. If, as I believe, heterosexual identities are always defined in opposition to homosexual ones, what are the implications of the increased visibility of gays and lesbians for heterosexuals today? How does gay visibility shape straight men’s identities?

A history of heterosexual id entities

Paralleling research on the history of homosexualities, sexuality scholars have recently begun to study the rise of heterosexuality as an identity. In nineteenth-century America, heterosexual identity did not exist among white middle-class Americans (Katz 1996). Men and women occupied different social roles: men in the world of work and government, and women in the household. Sex norms were centered on marriage. Sex was only permissible as an act of procreation in marriage. All non-procreative sex, as well as sex outside of marriage, was disapproved. Marriage was the cornerstone of Victorian life. A proper womanhood, manhood and progeny – not an erotic heterosexual love based on pleasure – were the organizing principles of intimate life among Victorians. Basically, sex was an instinct aimed at reproduction, not the basis of an identity (Katz 1996; Seidman 1991).

Dramatic changes occurred, however, in the early decades of the twentieth century. Women were struggling for civil and political rights, as well as joining the workforce and attending college in large numbers. Also, men were moving from farm and blue-collar occupations to white-collar ones, where the key qualities for white-collar jobs were “feminine” ones, such as the ability to communicate well, to cooperate, and to be

agreeable with others. The gender division was changing, men were becoming “feminized” through white-collar occupations, while women were entering the previously exclusive bastions of men: college, the workforce and politics (D’Emilio and Faderman 1988). Many Americans were anxious that gender roles were being blurred and confused. Would this gender confusion lead to the breakdown of marriage and social decline?

Historians argue that heterosexuality played a key role in enforcing a gender order that highlighted the differences between men and women. The notion of the normality and naturalness of heterosexuality made the idea that men and women are different and complementary seem like a necessity of nature. The norm of heterosexuality, in other words, helped to secure a binary gender order that was weakened by social changes (Chauncey 1994; Katz 1996).

As heterosexuality was seen as a normal part of being a man and a woman, individuals who violated rigid binary gender norms were stigmatized as homosexual. In other words, the norm of heterosexuality shaped a culture of homophobia. Homophobic practices separated heterosexuals from homosexuals, denying homosexuals basic rights and respect. In turn, binary gender norms and identities reinforced a norm of heterosexuality, since “normal” men and women exhibited heterosexuality through conventional gender behavior (Chauncey 1994; White 1993).

Today, heterosexual identity is defined as sexual attraction toward the opposite sex (Katz 1996). And procreation, while still used as a justification for the naturalness of heterosexuality, is no longer a necessary part of being heterosexual. New reproductive technologies like artificial insemination make procreative heterosexual relations optional; reproduction no longer requires heterosexual behavior.

Moreover, a heterosexual identity does not have to include a desire to marry or to have a family. It can simply mean opposite-sex attraction. In short, in many societies today heterosexuality, like homosexuality, is increasingly viewed as a distinct identity neither reducible to procreation nor simply the opposite of homosexuality. Heterosexual identities are like other identities, such as being black or white, a man or woman, and display their own patterns or styles.

Gender, homophobia, and heterosexual identity

Let’s shift our attention from the history to the sociology of heterosexuality. Recently, I completed research on straight identities (Dean 2005). I was interested in the way straight men and women express a heterosexual identity without necessarily relying on homophobia. In this chapter, I will focus my observations on straight men.

Sexist and homophobic practices are two of the central ways that men project a heterosexual masculinity. That is, for many men, displaying a seamless sense of masculinity in one’s self-presentation and behavior conveys a self-identity as straight. This has often meant acting in ways that are openly sexist or belittling of women and femininity. However, such behavior is less tolerated today. So, some men will rely on exhibiting a masculinity that reveals little or no traces of what is culturally associated with femininity. The stereotype of the tough, aggressive, show-no-feelings man expresses this sense of masculinity and heterosexuality.

But also, many men have relied on homophobic behavior to secure a straight identity. Calling someone a “fag” or ridiculing individuals believed to be homosexual has been a way to publicly declare a straight identity. My sense is that this is still true in America and many other societies. However, there has been a change in the last decade or so. As gay men and lesbians have become more visible and tolerated, it’s become less acceptable to engage in openly homophobic behavior. So, some men rely less on homophobic behavior to convey being straight. My sense is that these men also rely heavily on their masculinity to project a straight identity.

My view is that while some men continue to rely on sexist and homophobic behavior, especially in subtle ways, to convey a straight identity, many men today draw on an exaggerated or hyper-masculine style to convey being straight. I will present three men who rely on a hyper-masculine style to project a straight identity while being more deliberate in managing their relations to women and gays.

William is a 38-year-old white male who grew up in Queens, New York. He joined the army right after high school, serving two years of active duty, and was in the reserves until 1990. He has a shaved head and a solid, jock-like build and attitude. William projects a “hegemonic” style of masculinity through trying to be dominant over other men and women. In particular, through hyper-competitive alpha male practices of trying to beat other men in any possible activity, and in his attempts to win women’s sexual attention, he is constantly trying to secure his masculinity and a straight identity.

William projects a sexual identity through sexually objectifying women. That is, he reduces women to their sexuality and their sexuality is understood in terms of his masculine needs. For example, at the very beginning of our interview, he tells me: “Honestly, in regard to relationships with women, bisexual is preferred. I like two girls.” He explains to me that what he means by his preference for bisexual women is women who will have sex with both him and another woman at the same time, but who otherwise only have relationships with men. While he says that he has found women in Albany to be less open to this, he says that the most of the women he dated in Las Vegas had no compunction about his preference for group sex. He explains:

Living in Nevada, most women will do that. It’s different than here. People here [Albany, New York], my friend said it once where a woman will go out with a woman exclusively and then go out with a guy exclusively. In Nevada, I would go out on a date with my girlfriend, my girlfriend would want a lap dance. We’d go to a strip bar and we’d have a lap dance just so she could hang out with a girl. Sometimes the dancer would go home with you. Of the women I dated in Las Vegas, probably 75 percent of them were bi, but not bi in the sense that you’re thinking where they’ll have a relationship with a woman. They have a relationship with men, but they play with girls just because it’s the way Vegas is.

William’s preference for bisexual women who are willing to have group sex with another woman reinforces his straightness by its association with a hypersexual virility. In his experience in Las Vegas, bisexual women were basically sexual play toys for straight men like himself.

However, William is aware that his straight style can be self-destructive: for example, there is the danger of competitive aggressiveness leading to fights or an inability to emotionally relate to women. For example, while William prides himself on the ability to be competitive with other men, he also realizes the danger in this. He says:

There is that competitive thing there. You either choose to step up to it or you don’t. Who’s more of a man. That’s it, who’s more of a man. I’ll go A, I’ll go C. You’ll go D. What? Motherfucker. I just went Z. That’s what it’s about. Anywhere you go. It’s the ability to go from A to Z in less than thirty seconds flat when everyone else is going B. And that’s, either you choose to do it or you don’t and if you do it every single day of your life, you’ll end up in prison. It’s something you gotta ratchet yourself down [from]. But it’s the ability to do that when you want to.

However, since William has never been married, and is single and straight, this status creates some tension for him. That is, he knows that others sometimes view being single at the age of thirty-eight as suspect for homosexuality, and this creates some anxiety for him. Thus, in general he maintains clear social and physical boundaries between himself and openly gay individuals, so as to actively project a hypermasculinity that reinforces a clear, straight gender identity. As a result of the boundaries he establishes between himself and gay men, William generally avoids going into gay bars, and he fears having a man flirt with him. He acknowledges this openly:

I think as a heterosexual guy you have a phobia of being hit on by another guy. That’s largely why we don’t like to go, like myself, I don’t feel comfortable going to Oh Bar [a gay bar in Albany] for a drink. I’ve been in there before. My friend Alicia dragged me in there one night. I didn’t mind. I was there with two chicks, but I felt anxious the whole time. It was a sense of anxiety for me. But you just deal with it. I managed it. I mean I came out in one piece and I was fine. But it’s not like, from my perspective, I wouldn’t choose to go in there, sit down and have a beer because I wouldn’t feel comfortable.

More interesting, however, is that while William maintains a straight identity by relying on a hypermasculine style, he does not express a rabid homophobia. Gay visibility has contradictory effects. While some heterosexuals refuse to associate with gay men and lesbians entirely, others like William integrate them in some way in their lives. For example, although William feels uncomfortable going to a gay bar, he does support gay marriage and have a close gay male friend. William, then, represents the type of straight men who no longer feel the need to construct their heterosexual masculinity through a strong homophobic attitude. That is, gay visibility at times has the effect of uncoupling hegemonic masculinity and virulent homophobia. As gays are viewed as increasingly good and normal, heterosexual men negotiate the establishment of heterosexual masculinity through a variety of identity practices that no longer necessarily depend on strong homophobic attitudes and behavior.

We will see this development even more so in the cases of Jason and Nick, who still rely on gender-conventional behavior to project a heterosexual identity but embrace anti- sexist and anti-homophobic views. Although heterosexual male privilege and status is still central for how men achieve respect in everyday life, heterosexual men also secure their straight masculine status through practices that avoid stigmatizing homosexuals and subordinating women.

Born in 1979, Jason is an attractive young black man. Of average height, he has a lean, muscular build and is wearing loose blue jeans and a windbreaker jacket during our interview. His hair is grown out into a small Afro and he has a dark complexion. Jason is a congenial person who is easy-going but quiet and intensely private. He grew up in Queens and Long Island, New York. He was an only child for most of his life but has a 13-year-old half-brother from his father’s second marriage. He was primarily raised by his Jamaican-Indian mother and grew up around his aunt and female cousin. Jason graduated from college two years ago and is working in an administrative job in Albany, New York.

First and foremost, Jason’s straight identity is always refracted through the racial lens of his blackness, and this racial lens means that Jason experiences being a (heterosexual) black man as his most salient identity. He says:

Me being a man and just me being black just automatic throws [sic] out the vision of black man. So that would be my identity, the strongest identity I have. It’s not something I try to figure out how to portray to everyone that, “Heh, I’m a black man.” It’s just something that they see me as. So I just let people see me as what they want to see me as until they find out who I am.

Furthermore, although Jason says that he exhibits some stereotypical feminine behaviors, such as having manicured nails and crossing his legs when sitting, he says that other straight men never notice the clear polish on his nails nor do straight women question his heterosexual identity. However, they do jokingly tell him that he is a “metrosexual.” Nevertheless, after a series of questions about whether Jason has ever found himself attractive to men, in which Jason says that he never has, he becomes defensive in answering questions about his masculinity. For example, when I asked him, “How do you think your mother shaped your sense of masculinity?”, he replied:

Well I grew up with her. So I was around her all the time and I didn’t turn out feminine. I grew up with my cousin, who’s a girl. So I pretty much grew up around women my whole life and I never turned out acting feminine in any way. I guess just the way she acted and the way she portrayed herself. She [his mother] never really, she never really acted like a girl. She never acted sappy or she didn’t show that much emotions [sic] to a lot of things

Similarly, not only does Jason say that he does not act feminine in general, but he does take advantage of his heterosexual male privilege. He says:

Actually, I’m happy I’m the guy. That does matter to me. We get more advantages. There are so many more things we can do that girls can’t do, whether it’s hooking up with girls or walking out on the street late at night or just being a guy, not having to be pregnant and going through all those hormones that they do.

Race is always central in the construction of Jason’s heterosexual masculinity. He says that his black racial identity positions him within an array of racial stereotypes that convey a secure, straight identity. Whether it’s women acquaintances jokingly inferring he has a large penis, male friends insinuating he’s good at basketball, or male friends assuming that his associations with women are sexual, his black racial identity carries a sense of exaggerated masculinity and therefore heterosexuality.

Jason says, for instance:

I mean if you see me around a lot of times you see that I always hang around with girls. They [straight men] never questioned my [straight] sexuality. A lot of people just assume that I have a lot of girls, both guys and girls.

I ask him: “But most straight guys wouldn’t hang around with just girls, right? That would be a stereotype for gay men.” He replies:

That could be a stereotype for gay men, but in my case a lot of people seem to just think I have a lot of girls and I’m hooking up with all these girls that I’m hanging out with. Friends think, “Man, you have all these girls. All these girls like you.” They never assume that I’m gay because I hang out alone with girls.

While Jason’s masculine practices are generally conventional, his black racial identity acts as a kind of inoculation against homosexual suspicion. Indeed, it exaggerates his heterosexual masculinity and sexual prowess, as seen through his friends’ assumptions that he has “all these girls.” Jason thus reproduces dominant heterosexual masculine identity practices through both letting other men think he has sex with his women friends as well as by his general demeanor of remaining emotionally detached.

However, Jason does not engage in sexist or homophobic behavior. Although he wants to maintain his straight male privilege, he is egalitarian in his views toward women and homosexuals. For example, some of Jason’s closest friends are straight and bisexual women and gay men. When I asked Jason why he was not homophobic, he related his experiences of being a racial minority and his desire not to be discriminated against because of who he is. He extends this idea to other minorities in society. He explains:

Because I’m black and if you look at it from the standpoint of the one time black people were discriminated against by everyone. Why would you discriminate against somebody else? Just put yourself in their shoes because you actually can. Because black people are still discriminated against. So just go to some place else and see how a gay person feels. It’s

that they can hide it and a lot of times they do hide it and that messes them up inside. So just let them be who they are because you can’t hide who you are.

Jason illustrates how gay visibility and rights have successfully framed discrimination against homosexuals as similar to the experiences of discrimination that blacks face. Moreover, he views gays and lesbians as friends and social equals, thus illustrating how heterosexual men do not have to exclude gays and lesbians from their social circles to