Dictionary

heterosexualism en · NOUN

Etymology

From heterosexual + -ism.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) Discrimination against non-heterosexual people on the basis of their sexual orientation.
   • 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. 1990, Lawrence Mass, Dialogues of the Sexual Revolution:
   • 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. 2003, Human Rights Organizations & Periodicals Directory, page 119:
   • 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, Ojáncano - Issues 23-26, page 88:
   • The organization is no longer a coalition against racism. It's now a coalition against racism, sexism, classism, militarism and heterosexualism. 1993, Roderick Keith Linzie, Analysis of the anti-racist student movement at the University of Michigan -- Ann Arbor:
2. (uncountable) The state or existence of heterosexuality, including the traditional gender roles that accompany it.
   • 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. 1998, Janet R. Jakobsen, Working Alliances and the Politics of Difference:
   • 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. 2008, Alison Bailey, The Feminist Philosophy Reader, page 522:
   • 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. 1993, Gilbert H. Herdt, Andrew Boxer, Children of Horizons: how gay and lesbian teens are leading a new way out of the closet:
3. (uncountable) Synonym of heterosexuality.
   • 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. 2007, Dagmar Schiek, Lisa Waddington, Mark Bell, Cases, Materials and Text on National, Supranational and International Nondiscrimination Law, page 88:
   • 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. 1979, Brian J. Ford, Patterns of sex: the mating urge and our sexual future, page 155:
   • To keep the condition of transsexualism, and the orientation of either heterosexualism and homosexualism separate, try likening the subject to a two-layer sandwich. 1992, Stephanie Castle, Feelings: A Transexual's Explanation of a Baffling Condition, page 20:
   • 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. 1946, Journal of Clinical Psychopathology: 1945/1946 - Volume 7, page 483:

Synonyms

heterosexuality · heterosexism (discrimination against non-heterosexuals)

Translations (1)

fi heteroseksismi (type of discrimination)