Katz Heterosexuality

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In Katz essay, he strongly believes that heterosexuality is an invention. Katz provides an immense amount of examples and interesting information to back up his claim. His thesis that heterosexuality has not always existed and is a modern and metaphysical claim. Katz insists that the heterosexuality concept of perceiving, categorizing, and imagining has only sated back to the nineteenth century (Katz, p. 47). He points out that before heterosexuality, Americans idealized True Womanhood, True Manhood, and True Love and categorized them as being pure (Katz, p. 48). With that information, it’s safe to say that in the 1820s and 1860s it was definitely not acceptable to take a liking of the same sex. At this time, True love was idolized only between a man and a woman in hopes of marriage …show more content…

49). Additionally, doctors also helped push the male-female relationships further by encouraging the benefits of sex. Doctors used the notion of sex to help reduce women’s mental disturbances. Therefore, people were prone to mating with the opposite sex to enhance pregnancies, marriages, and family stability. Katz’s concept of heterosexism helps us understand this phenomenon because it breaks down parts of history and evidence from history. Katz believes that humans weren’t ever meant to like to opposite sex, but that makes me wonder, how were we able to reproduce with the same sex? Additionally, sex has always been an enjoyable factor in many relationships and for mental stability. With that being said, why would heterosexism start only in the nineteenth century? However, this concept presented by Katz can help us take a look at the evolution and demand for heterosexism. Typically, a set of lovers in a movie, novel, or a play are heterosexual which has led many of us to think that is the only acceptable

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