Heteronormativity in the Classroom

     One never really notices privilege in a classroom. We look at our peers in class as all one thing: Students in a higher education institution. We are all vessels retaining the information being taught at us. I used to notice everyone in my class as another student like me. Then I realized that that is not how I viewed them at all. Rather, this was how our university made us seem. In class we all adhere to rules and power relation between student and professor and then begin to "act" like students. It is important to notice that we are never one thing in any setting. This is best described in the feminist concept known as Intersectionality. Intersectionality was introducdiced by Kimberle Crenshaw's 1986 article Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color. In the article she states that we all have multiple identities that function simultaneously to make up the condition of our lives. Each identity is often placed in a category of privilege or subordination. One one level we may be privileged and on another we may be subordinate. For example, one may identify as white in the category of race, which is seen as privileged in our society, but in the category of sexually one may be homosexual, which is seen subordinate compared to heterosexuality. Our identities are complex and all need to be taken into account as to not further subordinate an individual, and to strive for equality. This is particularly true in the classroom.
     Heteronormativity has been inducted on an institutional level. We often don't notice this in the classroom because we are only seen as students. However, to not notice our identities in a classroom space is to make that space unsafe. It is to make it unsafe because institutionalized heteronormativity is assumed. To assume heteronormativity in the classroom is to marginalize individuals who do identify as "straight", or "man"/ "woman" or even male/ female.
     My point is that we go through our lives with uncertainty if when we are not identified as privileged in any category that makes up our identity. In many ways, those of us who identify as queer, homosexual, gay, lesbian, butch, femme, etc. are silenced in institutions that assume everyone is heteronormative.
     I've taken many classes at UCR, and for a campus that prides itself on diversity, sometimes race seems to overshadow all of our other identities. On one hand, this is good because no one race seems to be centralized and praised, but on the other hand, race is just one level, and for identities like sexuality, sex, and gender that are not as visible as race, these identities are overlooked.

A Close Encounter:

     Put downs, most of the time, are obvious. At an institution were diversity is valued, most individuals at any level (students, faculty, staff, etc.)  are conscious not to say something that is disrespectful and offensive. However, there are subtle ways in which homophobic rhetoric is instituted in classes. One specific example I point to is in the spanish class I am currently taking. Spanish is a language in which pronouns are split into masculine and feminine forms. (That in itself is a problem, but one that is difficult to change). In some way gender norms are built into the language because one's actions are described in a masculine or feminine form. However, this masculine and feminine form should not apply to describe individuals interest, relationships, activities. In my spanish class if find that a bunch of the material further normalizes and ingrains heteronormativity by showing us examples and making us write down responses to questions that only apply to heterosexuals. For example, we will read situations where Maria goes on a date with Julian. Maria is wearing a dress and high heels. Julian is wearing pants and a t-shirt. To the uncritical eye, this is just a spanish lesson. However, to individuals who do not perform gender in this way, these descriptions are hurtful. They are hurtful because it makes us seem weird, and pressured to conform, it makes us feel like we do not belong.
     Here is another situation: When learning about conjugation of verbs in Futuro (future) we were asked to come up with ten sentences to describe our ideal husband and wife for the future. We would use phrases like: I want my future husband to be... or I desire my future wife to be...  The next day in in class we went over the assignment, and we always do this orally. Our profesor went around the room and asked us to read our responses. Whenever our professor called a masculine name out, our professor would ask them to describe their ideal wife, and when our professor called a feminine name our professor would ask them to describe their ideal husband. I immediately felt uncomfortable. In assuming that every girl and boy was "straight"  and that every girl was feminine and boy was masculine, these questions were extremely imposing for those of us who don't conform to heteronormativity. These assignments impose an identity on us that isn't ours.
      Situations like these, I am sure, happen in all language classes at UCR. I am sure assignments likes these are the "norm". The question is then, how do we figure out a way to make the material and class structure inclusive of every individual? What is lacking here is an intersectional analysis of identities. What is lacking here is a dialogue between students and administration about heteronormative privilege and the problems with it. What is lacking is a critical reflection on course material and the way class is taught. The goal of every space, whether in a classroom, in the restroom, in the dining halls, etc. should be to create a safe space.  To start off, the professors and departments who create the course readers for my class should be told that their material is heteronormative and that it is potentially homophobic because it is erasing the existence of homosexual, lesbians, masculine females, feminine males, etc...many individuals who are members of the UCR community. I think it is essential that administration and students start a dialogue to notice ways in which heteronormative privilege is a put down and is silencing individuals who do not adhere to the institution of heteronormativity.

What is Heteronormativity?

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Defining Heteronormativity: 

"As a term, heteronormativity describes the processes through which social institutions and social policies reinforce the belief that human beings fall into two distinct sex/gender categories: male/man and female/woman. This belief (or ideology) produces a correlative belief that those two sexes/genders exist in order to fulfill complementary roles, i.e., that all intimate relationships ought to exist only between males/men and females/women." 

"Heteronormativity is the cultural bias in favor of opposite-sex relationships of a sexual nature, and against same-sex relationships of a sexual nature. Because the former are viewed as normal and the latter are not, lesbian and gay relationships are subject to a heteronormative bias." 

Heteronormativity is a relatively new term popularized by Michael Warner in 1991. This term is generally criticized by feminist because it assumes that the dominate gender and sex, which are women/female and man/male are destined and inherently supposed to be linked. In assuming that this coupling is imperative, one makes the mistake in thinking that sex and gender are the same thing, one makes the mistake in thinking that only these two gender/sex exist, and one makes the mistake in thinking that only the sexuality between women/men and female/male exist (heterosexuality). To understand the problems that arise from heteronormativity, for one, one needs to clarify what nearly all feminist strive to communicate, which is the difference between gender and sex. 

Secondly, it is important to notice how the model of man and woman, male and female shape our understand of ourselves and how we operate in the world.  In assuming the coupling of male/female and man/women, heterosexuality, in essence the "normal" sexual orientation, becomes the dominate sexuality. The visibility of heterosexuality makes all other sexualities "deviant", powerless, and ends up marginalizing sexualities, genders, and sexes that do not appropriately perform heteronormative gender, sex, and sexual norms. 

Gayle Rubin's illustrates the threats of heteronormativity in his "sex/gender system".  This system explains sex is biologically fixed, and that gender, is socially constructed. Because gender is socially constructed, it is made up of differences that result in oppression; Oppression by which heternormativity forces societal expectations to dictate how women and men behave. He states, women are oppressed as women by having to be women”. The same could be said about men, heterosexuals, homosexuals, intersex, etc. Adhering to a sexuality and gender that is “normal” creates the institution of (heterormativity) that assumes we are all female/ male performing “proper” gender. For example, a woman is to perform being a woman under heteronormativity. She is supposed to be submissive to her husband, is suppose to taker care of the children, care for her husband, cook the meals, dress femininely, etc. Failing to perform being a woman convincingly strips her of her “woman-hood”. 


Examples of heteronormativity include:

• The underrepresentation of same-sex couples in advertising and entertainment media
• Laws that actively discriminate against same-sex relationships (ie marriage) 
• Religious bias against same-sex couples
• Like racism, sexism, and heterosexism, can only be eliminated culturally--not legislatively. But from a civil liberties perspective, the government should not participate in heteronormativity by enacting heteronormative laws

Sources: 

Farrel, Gupta, Queen. Interrupting Heteronormativity. The Graduate School of Syracuse University. 2005. pg. 3. 

http://civilliberty.about.com/od/gendersexuality/g/heteronormative.htm