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| Pervasiveness of Heteronormativity: Punctuated Sexuality and the Media |
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| Opinion - Global Warning | |||
| Lisa Jain Thompson | |||
| Friday, 26 June 2009 21:00 | |||
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Fairfax, VA, USA. Most sexually reproducing species spend most of their evolutionary history punctuated into an equilibria equally divided into male and female. Very few of us ever check the “other” box. Boy or Girl, Girl or Boy, except after “C” and/or if the year is divisible by both 100 and 400. Within any given representative population x, research suggests that the top level of the gay and lesbian population equals .1x +/- .05. Let’s just say ten percent of any given human population prefers to have sex with persons having the same identical genitalia as they do. Inboards like inboards; outboards want outboards. 10% Throw in another 5% of the population or so to cover people who identify as transgender and you still have 85% of the general population uncommitted to their inherent queerness. These are the great unwashed heteronorms.
Washington, DC, USA. Science observes the universe, records what has occurred, and then develops a testable  theory that can explain those observations and make predictions on future ones.
Albert Einstein was very good at thi...
and
and
and
and
or
Solving for h
Restated as
Heteronorms represent 85% of the human population.
Apparently, and as difficult as it may be to visualize on a university campus, 85% of the population is NOT queer. Not queer. Not queer. That’s means, for the most part, they are straight [N2] and their preferred hook up [N3] is with a member of the opposite sex [N4]. What sent me off on this column, was a paper in Gender and Society, Hetero-Romantic Love and Heterosexiness in Children's G-Rated Films by Karin A. Martin and Emily Kazyak, both University of Michigan [N5]. I thought the title of the paper alone worth the price of admission. The authors examined accounts of heterosexuality in media for children, focusing, of course, on all the G-rated films [N6] grossing $100 million dollars [N7] or more between 1990 and 2005. They found two main accounts of heterosexuality [N8].
I’d tell them about the magic, but I suspect it would be like trying to tell a stranger about rock and roll.
I would not say Martin and Kazyak are bitter, but they seem unhappy with the culture they find themselves in. I would suggest that rather than tearing down heteronormativity of 85% of the population, they might spend their time better creating cultural archetypes, books and films that advocates better goals and ideals for the other 15% — but I doubt that paper would be published given the current state of what passes for erudition on college campus [N9]. The authors continue their astute observations:
And, their point? Men looking at women’s bodies is a neutral value action. If men did not look at women (and women at men) the human species would have died out several million years ago. It is the nature of the beast to look at each others’ bodies. That G-rated movies reflects human nature is to be expected, especially when actual sexuality is almost non-existent (or the film wouldn’t be rated G, would it?). Look at each others’ bodies is not an exclusively heteronomative trait, or even an exclusive male behavior pattern. Straight men look at women; Straight women look at men and women. Gay men look at men; Gay women look at women. Bisexuals look at everyone. Like some religious saint, academic feminism’s disdain for human sexuality warps their research and their polemics. Love is for the masses, not the academics.
Perhaps Martin and Kayzak would prefer that characters in love are surround by thunderstorms, dead rats, and smog filled skies. Anyway, that film has been done. It’s called WALL-E. You can tell a lot about a researcher by the sources she or he quotes. Here are a few of the articles referenced in Martin and Kayzak’s paper [N10, 11]:
Apparently the film medium’s grievous sin is that it reflects 85% of the human population in a walt-disney kind of a way in G-rated movies. Well golly, Let’s have more drive by shootings and guys sucking each other off in the restroom. As for Disney productions being 100% heteronormative, I have two words for you
Case closed. Notes[N1] If need be, throw in a few random
 and some  and my meaning quickly becomes clearer. [N2] I am never sure where to place bisexuals: we are such a fluid population. You need to ask each bisexual individually whether they are heteronorm or homonorm or neithernorm. [N3] I understand that the kids today think “hooking up” is the “Cat’s Meow” and definitely cheaper than dating. [N4] Boy, if you are a girl; a girl, if you are a boy. Not really “opposites,” more like divergent timelines in parallel universes that occasionally share a mutual point in time and space. [N5] Hetero-Romantic Love and Heterosexiness in Children's G-Rated Films. Karin A. Martin and Emily Kazyak. Gender & Society 23(3): 315-336 (2009). doi: 10.1177/0891243209335635 Abstract. In this article, the authors examine accounts of heterosexuality in media for children. The authors analyze all the G-rated films grossing $100 million dollars or more between 1990 and 2005 and find two main accounts of heterosexuality. First, heterosexuality is constructed through hetero-romantic love relationships as exceptional, powerful, magical, and transformative. Second, heterosexuality outside of relationships is constructed through portrayals of men gazing desirously at women's bodies. Both of these findings have implications for our understanding of heteronormativity. The first is seemingly at odds with theories that claim that heterosexuality's mundane, assumed, everyday ordinariness lends heteronormativity its power. In fact, the authors suggest heterosexual exceptionalism may extend the pervasiveness of heterosexuality and serve as a means of inviting investment in it. The second offers ways to begin to think about how heteronormativity is gendered and racialized. Key Words: adolescence, children, sexuality, media, mass communications. [N6] My daughters preferred PG or PG-13 films, my son, anything that exploded. [N7] The influence of G-rated films grossing less than $100M that did not make back their production costs was not addressed. Apparently few children watch them or perhaps few adults could stomach them. [N8] Boy-Girl stuff, I assume. I don’t think heterosexualness is one of the codes at the beginning of a film. I’ve never seen a warning that a film was “inappropriate for heterosexuals,” but I admit to seldom concerning myself with the alphabet soup that precedes most modern movies. [N9] Damn that younger generation. Trust no one under 50. [N10] I admit to having bizarre titles on some of my columns, but my purpose is to attract interest and attention on a cluttered internet, not to submit papers to research journals. [N11] Polite laughter permitted but these are the real titles of the papers. [N12] Micky Mouse Club, Annette Funicello, Jimmy Dodd … Ask your parents, kids.
 Ms. Lisa Jain Thompson is a Co-Founder & Principal of TS-Si. She also serves as a Contributing Editor and columnist for the TS-Si website. She maintains another site, StarPoet.com, for her poetry and literary works.Ms. Thompson's signed articles contain her own opinions and do not necessarily convey an official position of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. Lisa welcomes your comments. Use the form below or email via her TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.
 The TS-Si News Service is a collaborative effort by TS-Si.org editors, contributors, and corresponding institutions. Sources can include the cited individuals and organizations, as well as TS-Si.org staff contributions. Articles and news reports do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. We welcome your comments. Use the form below to leave a public comment or send private correspondence via the TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.TS-Si is dedicated to the acceptance, medical treatment, and legal protection of individuals correcting the misalignment of their brains and their anatomical sex, while supporting their transition into society as hormonally reconstituted and surgically corrected citizens.
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