WEEK 4
ADITYA BANERJEE
In her piece titled Compulsory Heterosexuality and
Lesbian Existence, Adrienne challenges the notion/concept of Compulsory
heterosexuality. Also, she attempts to bridge the gap between lesbian and
feminist. Upon the prevalent notion of lesbian, she highlights two aspects –
the crushing of women’s choice of woman partners and neglect of lesbian
existence in feminist scholarships. She pursues a feminist critique of
compulsory heterosexualism, which has been absent in literature. In all
previous existing books, Heterosexuality was presumed the sexual preference of
most women. The idea of Preference and innate orientation needs has been
questioned and revisited. The author goes on suggesting that Heterosexuality,
like motherhood, needs to be recognized and studied.
The 8 characteristics of male power included in
Kathleen Gough’s essay ‘The Origin of the Family’ reflects the fact that we are
not confronting a simple maintenance of inequality but a pervasive cluster of
forces. However, some forms of male power including enforcing heterosexuality
on women are easily recognizable.
Further, Catherine Mackinnon’s study Sexual Harassment
of Working Women: A case of sex discrimination has been discussed, whereby
intersection of Compulsory heterosexuality and economics is discussed. In the
workplace, women do occupy a lower position as compared to men, sexualization
of the women being part of the job. Often do women have to please their male
bosses so as to survive/grow in their jobs, sex being their power irrespective
of the job.
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