Notes on Male/Heterosexual Power

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    In the present day, heterosexual power hides itself as power. Rather than presenting itself as the dominant power, it presents itself as the natural and biological norm by which all humans are defined by default. It is assumed that gender is equivalent to sex. It is assumed heterosexuality is the norm. It is assumed, whether it is said or not, that men take the active role and women take the passive role, that men are dominant and women are dominated. However, it wasn’t always this way. For a very long time, a harsh struggle had to be waged against all forms of deviant sexuality - whether it be homosexuality, women’s sexuality, or genderqueer sexuality. Speaking of the Victorian era, Foucualt writes in The History of Sexuality that “sexuality was carefully confined; it moved into the home. The conjugal family took custody of it and absorbed it into the serious function of reproduction. On the subject of sex, silence became the rule. The legitimate and procreative couple laid down the law. The couple imposed itself as model, enforced the norm, safeguarded the truth, and reserved the right to speak while retaining the principle of secrecy.” (3).

The Victorian era can clearly be defined as a war against women’s sexuality. By confining sex to the realm of reproduction, the right to pleasure was forcefully taken from women, and they became enslaved to the household. In other words, by confining sexuality to the bedroom, women became reduced to the role of baby makers. Thus, after establishing the gender binary, the first act of male heterosexual power is to deprive women of sexual, social and economic freedom. This can be seen even more clearly in the European witch hunts, in which the crimes the so called “witches” were accused of were often of a sexual nature and familial nature; stealing children to consume, fornicating with the devil, etc.


2

From what has been said above, it is clear that heterosexual power is by nature masculine; it relies on the domination and subjegation of the feminine. It relies on the idea that there is a clear distinction between men and women, and that there is an unequal power relation between men and women, and that women are on the bottom of the hierarchy. Without this distinction, male power crumbles. Thus, it is the task of any revolutionary feminist project to deconstruct the gender binary, and show that sexuality and gender, far from being distinct from each other, actually rely on each other.


3

Heterosexual Ideology tries desperately to assimilate queerness into its worldview. Queerness rejects that sex is purely procreative, that it belongs only to the realm of reproduction. Because of this, it poses a significant threat to gender and its ideology. When it cannot assimilate queerness, it wages an all out war against it. This war is currently being waged in states like Florida and Texas, where anti trans legislation either has been passed or is in the process of being passed. 

The war against queerness, and in particular transness, is necessary in order to ensure the continued existence of heterosexual power, for if gender is truly arbitrary, and you are not stuck with the gender you are assigned at birth, and that gender is in fact not biological, the entire edifice of heterosexual power collapses. Gender ceases to be something rational and justified, and becomes unnecessary baggage.

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