Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality by Hanne Blank

Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality

by Hanne Blank

Beacon Press, 2012

ISBN: 978-0807044445

228 p.p.

In 1868, the term heterosexual was coined by a Victorian-era writer. It's surprising that the term is less than 150 years old and that its history has never before been written, yet we live in a society obsessed with it.

Since before birth, we are put into a category after finding out what our sex will be. You will be assigned a color, toys, and how much affection you will receive. There is no escaping this epidemic of gendering. Through this act of gendering, people presume your sexual identity before you are able to confirm or deny it.

Straight, by Hanne Blank, delves deep into the contemporary psyche as well as the historical record to chronicle the realm of heterosexual relations, a subject that is anything but straight and narrow. This excellently written book looks into the history of heterosexuality as a thing in and of itself. In doing so, Blank touches on many related issues, such as theories of male and female sexuality, the history of marriage, and gendering. “We don't just want what we want because we want it; we want what we want because that's what we've learned to want.”

For the most part, people do what is expected of them. If you are a boy you wear blue, play with trucks, like to roll in dirt, and don’t show emotion. If you are a girl, you wear pink, play with dolls, care about your appearance, and are emotional. From this designation, you are expected to be attracted to people of the opposite sex. It is not exclusively about straight; in exploring how this concept came to be, and to be accepted, Blank touches on many other sexual realms—none would be possible without the others.

Blank begins with the startling information about terms such as heterosexuality and sodomy. Until 1869, the term sodomy was used to describe sexual relationships outside of marriage—the presumption being that the purpose of a proper sexual relationship was procreation. Patterns of appropriate behavior have changed radically from the 19th century, when lawyers who were typically men shared a bed when they rode the circuit without any implication of impropriety. This was considered very normal as it was a way to save money. While women since then have increasingly gained equality politically and in the workplace, they too have had very close relationships with people of the same sex throughout history.

The case of erectile dysfunction is used to illustrate a hidden meaning of heterosexuality today: In “the model of pleasure that Viagra is marketed to serve… Viagra-fueled erections are intended for vaginal penetration… the only fully legitimate source of sexual pleasure for most of Western history.” Moreover, homosexual “men who take the insertive role of sex with other men are likely to be perceived as more masculine and sexually respectable” than their passive counterpart. This comes to show how society is so focused on giving a partner in a relationship the more feminine role regardless if it is two men or two women.

Blank speaks of love and passion and how they are not definable by biology. Her exploration of this cultural norm is mind blowing and truly gives you an interesting understanding of sexuality and human relationships.

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Hanne Blank is a writer, historian, and public speaker whose work has been featured everywhere from Out to Penthouse. An independent scholar, she is the author of Virgin: The Untouched History and seven other books that explore the intersections of sexuality, gender, the body, and culture. She has been a visiting scholar at the Institute for Teaching and Research on Women, as well as an instructor, guest lecturer, and visiting speaker at colleges and universities, including Tufts, Brandeis, and Johns Hopkins.