The Invention of Heterosexuality“Heterosexuality,” assumed to denote a universal sexual and cultural norm, has been largely exempt from critical scrutiny. In this boldly original work, Jonathan Ned Katz challenges the common notion that the distinction between heterosexuality and homosexuality has been a timeless one. Building on the history of medical terminology, he reveals that as late as 1923, the term “heterosexuality” referred to a "morbid sexual passion," and that its current usage emerged to legitimate men and women having sex for pleasure. Drawing on the works of Sigmund Freud, James Baldwin, Betty Friedan, and Michel Foucault, The Invention of Heterosexuality considers the effects of heterosexuality’s recently forged primacy on both scientific literature and popular culture. “Lively and provocative.”—Carol Tavris, New York Times Book Review “A valuable primer . . . misses no significant twists in sexual politics.”—Gary Indiana, Village Voice Literary Supplement “One of the most important—if not outright subversive—works to emerge from gay and lesbian studies in years.”—Mark Thompson, The Advocate |
From inside the book
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... social and historical production of heterosexuality (and, by extension, of homosexuality, and all the sexualities). Since 1995, I've thought more about the role of language in the construction of particular, historical sexualities, and ...
... social uses of language. First, as a victim of words, I felt their ability to wound. Here, as historian, I dissect and question them, to understand them, and subvert their force. Following that fateful fifties morning, I spent the next ...
... social construction of homosexuality” refers to “homosexuality” in the period “Before Homosexuality,” not, apparently, bothered by the contradiction.” How to transcend the notion of an unchanging heterosexual (and homosexual) essence is ...
... social universe polarized into heteros and homos. If we do not wish to impose our modern vision on the past, we need, first, to ask what terms and concepts the people of a particular era used to refer to sexual and affectional relations ...
... social enforcement of heterosexuality.” A few days later Duggan's phrase set off in my head a flash of illumination. It suddenly came to me, and I even muttered out loud to myself: “Heterosexuality wasn't only enforced, it was invented ...
Contents
1 | |
19 | |
3 Before Heterosexuality
| 33 |
4 Making the Heterosexual Mystique
| 57 |
5 The Heterosexual Comes Out
| 83 |
6 Questioning the Heterosexual Mystique
| 113 |
7 The Lesbian Menace Strikes Back
| 139 |
8 Toward a New Pleasure System
| 167 |
Afterword
| 193 |
Acknowledgements
| 197 |
Notes
| 201 |
Bibliography
| 247 |
Index
| 283 |