Heterosexuality

Heterosexuality, sexual attraction to those of the opposite sex. The term was coined in the late 19th century to provide an alternative concept to the categories of homosexuality and bisexuality, newly defined by German sexologists. Until this period, there was no concept of heterosexuality; heterosexuals were simply seen as “normal”, and those of other orientations as pathological.

All societies seem to be predominantly heterosexual, presumably because of the association of sexuality with reproduction, although today’s increased availability of birth control has meant that people are more likely to engage in heterosexual sexual behaviour for pleasure rather than primarily for procreation. Many forms of heterosexual behaviour are stigmatized just as homosexuality and bisexual behaviour have been. Such deviations from the predominant Christian ideology of “normal” sexual relations as fetishism or group sex are taboo in many cultures, and many religious faiths condemn any intercourse if it is outside marriage or for purely pleasurable reasons.

Exactly what determines people’s sexual orientation, heterosexual or otherwise, is unclear. Sexuality was typically seen as a natural, innate force until social influences became increasingly recognized as contributory factors. More recently, genetic predisposition to different types of sexuality has been considered.

Some social scientists have suggested that heterosexuality is a social institution like marriage, and that most people live heterosexual lifestyles at least partly because it is the social norm. Radical feminists went even further and suggested that heterosexuality was an institutionalized means of oppressing women and in the 1970s some heterosexual feminists adopted homosexual lifestyles as a form of political action.