Because sometimes, just sometimes, there’s a topic on the English Literature course that’s interesting…
Compulsory heterosexuality, popularised by American writer and feminist Adrienne Rich, is the theory that heterosexuality is enforced and rendered as the accepted norm by a patriarchal society. In Rich’s essay entitled ‘Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence’, published in 1980, she argues that feminism would benefit from encompassing lesbian experience into its sphere of focus and joining forces with other oppressed women. As lesbian behaviour is often viewed as ‘deviant or abhorrent’, or simply made invisible, by the same male-dominated society that restricts the behaviour of heterosexual women, Rich advocates a collaboration between the two causes in order to gain greater political strength.
Rich’s article is an easy but extremely interesting read, expressing refreshing and enlightening ideas about feminism that I hadn’t previously thought about. She views the enforcement of heterosexuality as a means of securing male power and sexual access to women, and as a social force operating alongside other powerful tactics such as physical brutality and control of female consciousness. Furthermore, Rich draws attention to established ideologies maintaining the current status quo such as the indoctrination in heterosexual romance that young girls receive through popular childhood fairy tales and songs, and the presentation of the male sexual drive as uncontrollable and ‘naturally inevitable’.
In order to combat this patriarchal power and female subordination, Rich recommends woman identification and the creation of ‘lesbian feminism’, joining forces with like-minded females to fight against oppression and limitation. She believes that ‘the absence of choice remains the great unacknowledged reality’, and that this has partly arisen from the history of lesbian experience that limits its modern presence. For instance, the past destruction of letters and other records establishing a lesbian tradition has maintained the primacy and compulsory nature of heterosexuality, silencing the expressions of joy, sensuality, and courage that women should be able to access. Furthermore, Rich opposes the historical presentation of lesbian experience as the female version of male homosexuality, thus denying its differences and particularities that make it unique.
In exploring how heterosexuality has come to be accepted as the natural and normal choice alongside gender issues, it becomes clear that the establishment of patriarchal dominance can be viewed as influential in restricting both lesbian experience and feminist voices, thus supporting Rich’s endorsement of cooperation and solidarity. Joining forces with others striving for the same goal of equality and freedom can only increase the power of expression and likelihood of success. In the words of Adrienne Rich, ‘Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you’, so don’t adopt a passive role and accept the established views of a patriarchal society if you believe in gender and sexual equality. You owe it to yourself above all else.