Heteronormativity

Heteronormativity is the idea of normalizing heterosexuality through social, political, economic, and cultural institutions. Heteronormativity is the "sense of rightness -- embedded in things and not just in sex" in nationality, commerce, medicine, education, cultural conventions, and more. As Lauren Berlin and Michael Warner argue, "heteronormative forms of intimacy are supported not only by overt referential discourse such as love plots and sentimentality but materially, in marriage and family law, in the architecture of the domestic, in the zoning of work and politics."

Heteronormativity and Women
As Heather Hlvaka argues, "traditional gender arrangements, beliefs, and behaviors reinforce women's sexual subordination to men." Heterosexuality itself orders the way that men and women interact, placing women below men and only valuing women in relation to men.

Heteronormativity conceptualizes women as "passive, submissive and vulnerable", while men are "aggressive, dominant, and eager." Thus, heteronormative discourses fosters and promotes male power and aggressiveness, making women into sex objects.