Compulsory Heterosexuality: Difference between revisions

This system is enforced not only through overt violence or discrimination, but through social conditioning, media representation, educational norms, and economic dependency. From early childhood, girls are inundated with messages that pair female worth with male desire, teaching them to aspire to male attention, fear female independence, and view intimacy with men as their ultimate fulfilment. Even women who do not feel authentic attraction to men often conform to heterosexual relationships because alternatives such as celibacy, lesbianism, or non-participation are rendered invisible, ridiculed, or punished. This erasure of possibility makes heterosexuality appear “natural” and inevitable, masking the reality that for many women, it is a role performed under duress.